


Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Father Thy Blood (Season 3 Part 1)

by cameron33268110



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Quotev, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Cross-Posted on deviantArt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Haunting, Horror, Mind Madness, Part 1 of my own version of season 3 of VRAINS, Post-Season 2 of VRAINS, Pre-Season 3 of VRAINS even though some scenes from season 3 will be added, Ryoken will have a lot of OOC, Slight Datastormshipping, Slight Humor, There are some swear words too, tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2019-10-14 06:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 38,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17503001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cameron33268110/pseuds/cameron33268110
Summary: Dr. Kogami has returned, but somehow, no one can see him, except for his own son. Soon, Ryoken has lost his mind when his father keeps haunting and is on a verge of madness. Will Yusaku help him or will Ryoken somehow kill himself?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome to my next story, Father Thy Blood, and this story is going to be pretty messed up... Why? Well, I did this meme on deviantart (And not the internet memes, please) and I kept wondering if Dr. Kogami were to come back, but as a ghost or a spirit, and only Ryoken can see him and that he is haunted by him. Well, I thought I might do this story and please remember, I do not own any of the characters, but there will be some OCs that I will add in the story later on. So, enjoy the story! Oh by the way, this story takes place after season 2.

It has been a couple of days since Lightning has been defeated and things are back to normal. Well, sort of back to normal. Ryoken has stopped trying to focus on destroying the Ignis, basically he kind of has a soft spot on Yusaku since he helped him defeat Lightning in this war.

Ryoken doesn't care about the whole peace between the humans and the Ignis. He still thinks that the Ignis are evil and they might hurt their origins, just like how Windy hurt his origin in that car accident, but he respects Yusaku's opinion to find a way to co-exist.

Ryoken hated the Ignis, a lot. They are bad news, but some of them are kind of good, but Lightning and Windy, they were not. The only reason Ryoken wanted to destroy the Ignis was because his father told them that they might destroy the world and he wanted them destroyed. That was his final wish before he died.

Ryoken sometimes misses his father a lot and he wishes that he didn't have to sacrifice his life to save him. It sucks to lose a parent and it's also hard for him to cope his loss, but he is trying. He wishes that his father was here, right now.

"Ryoken." Ryoken frozen at a voice. He recognize that voice. He slowly turned away and saw someone he hadn't seen in 3 months.

It was his father. Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami Standing just there. Alive. For no reason at all.

"Father?" Ryoken took a couple a steps towards his father and looked at him for a moment. He looks so real. His father then gives his son a gentle smile.

Ryoken then smiles and he feels tears forming in his eyes, but he refuses to let them fall. His father is really back!

"Spectre!" Ryoken goes to the other room to get Spectre.

"Hm? What is it, Ryoken-sama?" Spectre asked.

"It's my father, he's back! He's alive!" He told his friend in joy.

"What?"

Ryoken immedientlly took Spectre's hand and took him to his room. When he did, he sees his father is still there. "See? There he is. Alive and well. Just how he is 10 years ago."

Ryoken's smile was big, but Spectre somehow gave Ryoken a confusing look. "Are you mad, Ryoken-sama," he asked, "there's nobody in here."

Ryoken's smile drops. Now he was the one confused. What does he mean by nobody's here. His father is standing right in front of them. "What are you talking about? He's over there. Looking at us." He walked over to his father and reached for his hand, but...

His hand went through his father's hand.

Ryoken freaked out by this. How in the world did his father get transparent like this.

Then it hit Ryoken very hard. He realizes that his father was cold when he went through his hand and all of the pieces came together.

His father was still dead, and this was his ghost, but only he can see him.


	2. Turn 103: The Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon trying to clear his mind, Ryoken meets a very old childhood friend he though he never see again in 10 years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! The first chapter of Father Thy Blood! I'll recap of what happened in the prologue, so in this story, the battle between Lightning is now over and things are back to normal, but somehow, Ryoken sees his father alive for no reason at all and he showed Spectre that his father is here, but Spectre claims that nobody is here and Ryoken tries to touch his father, but his hand went right through and then he realizes that his father is a ghost! OOOOOOWEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! 
> 
> Takeru: Would you stop making that noise?!
> 
> Me: Oh, right. I forgot that you were afraid of ghosts. Well, at least I won't write a fanfic story about your parents being ghosts and you only see them. Or will I?
> 
> Takeru: You're joking, right? Please say you're joking.
> 
> Me: Maybe... Anyway, let's start the first chapter of Father Thy Blood!

 

It's been two days now since Ryoken has discovered his father's ghost. And somehow he is the only one who can see him. Spectre couldn't see him. Aso didn't see him. Dr. Taki didn't see him. Dr. Genome didn't see him. Just Ryoken himself.

Ryoken thought he was imagining things, so he tried to think his father isn't really here as a ghost, but no matter how hard he tries, his father's ghost is still there.

When Ryoken tried to show Spectre that his father is alive, but only turning out that he can't see him, Spectre thought he was a little bit tired after the fight with the Light Ignis, it made him imagine that his father was there. So, he thought Ryoken could have some rest for a bit, which Ryoken tried, but it didn't work.

He is now in his room, laying on his bed, trying to compose his mind on how he is the only one seeing his father's ghost. 

"Ryoken." He heard the ghost of his father speak, but he choose to ignore him. It. Whatever he wants to call... that. "You chose to ignore me? Your own father?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

"You're not real," he said, coldly, "my father is dead. He can't possibly return in this kind of form."

"But I am here," he said calmly, "and it is possible." He then smiles at his son. The same smile Ryoken thought he would never see again. But that doesn't mean Ryoken will believe him.

He looked away from his so-called father and doesn't say anything else. He just wishes he would go away. Ghost or not, it is getting a bit annoying having his deceased so-called father hovering around him. It's also a little bit creepy too.

"If you want to ignore me, that's fine with me," he said, Ryoken is still not looking at his so-called father, "especially since I know that it was you who called the police on me 10 years ago."

Ryoken's eyes widen in shock when he said that. His father knew that Ryoken called the police? He knew that he saved the 6 victims of the Lost Incident? How did he know? Ryoken turned to look at his ghost father. "Y-you're messing with me, right?" He asked, trying to avoid the fear in his voice. "Because there is no possible way that my real father would of figured it out so soon. Not even Dr. Taki, Aso, and Dr. Genome don't know about how I called the police." 

"A father knows very well of what their child has done," he said, "even of what happened 10 years ago." He then gives his son a very evil smirk which kind of gives Ryoken the chills.

_'I must be having a horrible nightmare,'_ Ryoken thought to himself, ' _there is no way he could of possibly known by chance.'_ He pulled his cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but it just hurt himself a bit, knowing he wasn't dreaming.

"Pinching yourself isn't going to help you, son," he said, "I will still be here, so there is no chance of getting rid of me or what you done to me."

Ryoken wanted to say that he is sorry for what he did. That he didn't mean to send him away for 3 years and then come back with a virus that made him stay in a coma for 7 years and then having him die for him. He wanted to say that he regretted calling the police and reporting his father for hurting the 6 victims, but somehow he wasn't able to say all of that. It's like something inside him is not making him speak.

"I still can't believe that you would call the police. On your own father," he said in a disappointed  tone, "now why would you do something like that? I haven't done anything wrong to you. I've been a good father towards you. Yes, I may have been busy all the time, but still, you didn't have to do that. Or did it have something to do with the Hanoi Project?" Ryoken slightly gulped when his father mentioned the H word. "Either way, I am very disappointed that you would do that. If I were still alive, I would do something to you right now!"

Ryoken fell off his bed when his father raised his voice like that. That completely startled him. He's just losing it. He got up and went out of his room. He need to go outside to clear his mind. Maybe a walk outside would help stay away from his ghostly father.

* * *

 

It didn't. Everywhere Ryoken goes, his father's ghost comes along too. 

"Don't even bother trying to escape your own father. I'm always going to be with you, no matter where you go." He told his son, which gives Ryoken chills in his spine.

He knows that he can't tell his ghost father to go away where there are people in public. Some might think he is talking to himself or worse, being crazy. So he tried to ignore him. 

"Choose to ignore me again?" He looked at his son with a raised eyebrow, before it was lowered down, "Very well then. I will leave you alone, for now. You are an adult and I respect that." And then he just fades away.

Ryoken should feel relieved by now, but he knows that his ghost father will be back. He doesn't know what to do now or if things get anymore worse than this.

"Ryomi!" Ryoken paused for a moment when a female called out that nickname. A nickname he haven't heard for a really long time. 

He turns around and sees a young girl, probably two years younger that he is. She is in high school, but she doesn't go to the same school as Yusaku Fujiki does. She has light purple hair and hazel eyes. She was running towards him, seeing how happy she is. Ryoken then gives out a frustrated sigh, he knows that girl from a long time. "Hello Funakoshi-san..."

The light purple haired girl stopped and looked at Ryoken, with a big smile on her face. "Ryomi, you know it's Kanashi. We used to call each other by our first and last names combined together! Your name,  'Ryoken Kogami' makes it 'Ryomi', and my name, 'Kanata Funakoshi, makes it 'Kanashi.'" She said.

Ryoken remembers that. He was just a kid and he had fun with Kanata when they were kids, that was, when his father started the Lost Incident. After he reported on his father, he never saw Kanata again. 

"I'm not a child anymore, Funakoshi-san," he said, "I'm 18 years old now, I don't need to do childish things anymore." And with that, he walks away.

"Wait, Ryomi!" Kanata runs towards Ryoken and she jumps on his back, which almost made him stumble on the ground. "It doesn't matter if you're all grown up and such, you're still Ryomi to me."

Ryoken may have changed for the last 10 years, but Kanata was still her usual self back when they were kids. He wishes he was reverted back to his original self instead of having the current one where he is a Cyber Terrorist in Link VRAINS. 

"No. I'm not," he said in a pretty upset voice, "I've changed." Kanata stayed silent for a moment. Ryoken expects her to argue back. They sometimes argue when they were kids until his father or her parents try to break them and have each other apologize.

Soon, after like a few minutes, Kanata said, "Okay." Ryoken's eyes widen in surprise. Okay? No arguing or something like that? That's a first. "I understand, Ryomi. You're 18 years old, meaning you are an adult, and I'm still 16 years old and in high school." She then gets off of Ryoken's back.

She gives a big smile to Ryoken. "Well, I'm glad I got to see you again, Ryomi," she said, "maybe we might run into each other again."

"Yeah. Maybe." Ryoken said.

"I should get home now. It was great seeing you! Bye bye!" She waved goodbye and left in a hurry and Ryoken watches her hurry off.

"Kanata Funakoshi. I remember that girl," his ghost said, as he appeared next to Ryoken, "A very energetic kind of child.  Always see things as positive." Ryoken remembers that. He remembered that he used to have a crush on Kanata when he was a kid, but he pushed aside that crush for the last 10 years. "You know, I was originally going to have Kanata to be the 6th and last subject for the Hanoi Project, but since you brought the young boy into our house, I decided that didn't want her and instead, I used him." 

Ryoken didn't say anything when his ghost father said that. If he didn't invite Yusaku to his home  to check out his deck, would his father take Kanata into his project, still creating the Dark Ignis, having her being tortured for 6 months and still call the police on his father to save her while Yusaku lived a normal life? Still, it doesn't matter, he would still be guilty of doing it even if it was Kanata being the Lost Incident victim and not Yusaku.

Soon, it was getting late, and Ryoken then headed home, with his ghost father still beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! The first chapter is done and I hope you all enjoyed it! The next chapter will probably be in Yusaku's POV. Probably. Anyway, feel free to comment on what you guys think about this chapter and I'll see you guys later!


	3. Turn 104: A Normal Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku's normal day at school, then working at the Cafe Nagi. New characters are introduced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Chapter 2 is now out! Recap: Dr. Kogami reveals that he knows that Ryoken called the police on him 10 years ago and that scared Ryoken a lot. Later he is reunited with an old childhood friend, Kanata Funakoshi, or Kanashi for short and Ryoken's nickname is Ryomi, but he doesn't want to be called by that because's he not a kid anymore, but Kanata keeps on doing so anyway. Dr. Kogami original was going to have Kanata be the last subject of the Hanoi Project instead of Yusaku, and Ryoken thought if he didn't meet and invite Yusaku to his house, then Dr. Kogami would torture Kanata for 6 months, and yet he would still snitch on his father for doing the project. Anyway, time to start the story, this time, it will focus on Yusaku. I don't know how he will encounter Ryoken again after the war against Lighting, but I'll figure that out. So, enjoy reading chapter 2 of Father Thy Blood!

A normal day at school is like any normal day, well, that doesn't bother Yusaku. He kind of feels neutral about school, he guess.

 

There wasn't any danger in Link VRAINS and besides, Yusaku did defeat Bowman since it was a couple of days, so he didn't mind taking a little break, he guess.

 

"Yusaku!" He heard someone call out his name. He turned around and sees his friend, Takeru, running up towards him, "Good Morning!" Takeru said, with a smile on his face.

 

"Morning," Yusaku said with his usual neutral face.

 

The two boys walked up to the school entrance where another boy with the same boy's school uniform is standing. He has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and he is not too happy.

 

"You two are late." He said in a bitter tone.

 

Manato Yamaguchi. A 3rd year in Yusaku’s high school and the student council president. He has always bugged Yusaku ever since he log into Link VRAINS to fight off the Knights of Hanoi 3 months ago, and he is still bugging him, and now he is bugging Takeru too.

 

“Sorry about that, Yamaguchi-senpai, but we kind of stayed up all night and haven’t sleep since then,” Takeru explained.

 

It was true, after Yusaku defeated Bowman and everybody else has returned from death, he, Ai, Takeru, and Kusanagi have celebrated their victory, but also mourn for the loss of the other Ignis since they haven’t come back yet, even though it was a school night.

 

“I don’t care,” Yamaguchi said, in a annoyed tone. He turns his head away from the boys, but he was looking at someone else, who has arrived late as well.

 

Yusaku turned away and sees his schoolmate, Aoi, coming up to the school as well.

 

“You’re late, Zaizen,” Yamaguchi told her.

 

“Sorry, senpai, I went to visit an old friend of mine,” she said. After Bowman was defeated, Aoi was brought back and she went to the hospital to see her old childhood friend, Miyu, who has awaken herself. There, they rekindle their friendship after 10 years of being separated.

 

“I don’t care,” Yamaguchi said the same thing again in the same annoyed tone, “I am reporting you three to the principal and you will be all staying here at school and do all the cleaning duty.”

 

“What?! No fair! We’ve promised our friend to take over his hotdog truck while he is visiting his brother!” Takeru complained.

 

“And I have to visit Miyu-chan after school at the hospital,” Aoi said, surprised as well.

 

“That’s what happens when the three of you are late to school,” Yamaguchi told them, then he eyes on Yusaku and Takeru, “and also, having a job is against the school rules, so I am putting an extra day on cleaning duty.”

 

Takeru groaned when he said that, “That’s not fair!”

 

“He’s right. It isn’t fair, Yamaguchi-kun,” a male voice said.

 

Yusaku, Takeru, and Aoi turned around and see another boy, wearing the boy’s school uniform, and is probably around Yamaguchi’s age, walks up towards them with a smile on his face. He has fiery spiky hair and dark ocean blue eyes.

 

Itsuki Asahina. Also a 3rd year as Yamaguchi. He is popular in school and all the girls love him, well, except for Aoi, and he is a star baseball player for their school’s baseball team.

 

“Having three 1st years doing all the cleaning duty twice while they have schedule plans, it is unfair,” Asahina explained.

 

“This is none of your concern, Asahina-san,” Yamaguchi said in a bitter tone, “also, you are late.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I was busy with baseball practice at home,” Asahina explained, “but still, you shouldn’t give them cleaning duty if they have other plans. And also, Fujiki-kun and Homura-san aren’t technically working at a hotdog truck, they are just helping a friend.”

 

“It doesn’t matter, they were late, so they get cleaning duty after school.”

 

“Then I’ll take their place in cleaning duty.” Yusaku, Takeru, and Aoi were surprised when Asahina volunteered to do the cleaning duty, when he has baseball practice with his teams.

 

“Don’t you have baseball practice today?” Yamaguchi asked.

 

“I’ll just cancel it today and go tomorrow,” Asahina said and then gives out his biggest grins and a thumbs up.

 

Yamaguchi gives out a big sigh in annoyance, “Fine. I’ll let Fujiki, Homura, and Zaizen go and you will be handling the cleaning duty.”

 

“I look forward to it!” Asahina said in a positive tone. Yamaguchi rolled his eyes in annoyance and he went inside the school.

 

“Y-you didn’t have to do that, Asahina-senpai!” Takeru stammered in shock.

 

“Hey, I didn’t want you three to delay your personal business, you know?” Asahina gives the three a thumbs up and a grin and then walks into the school, “Have a nice day!”

 

Takeru smiles like an goofball when he watches Asahina walk into the school. “Asahina-senpai is so cool!” He exclaimed in excitement, “Not only is he the captain of the baseball team, but he also got us out of cleaning duty!”

 

“What did you expect, Takeru? He’s a 3rd year in school.” Yusaku explained.

 

“And let’s not forget that every girl in school falls for him all the time,” Aoi added, “it’s a good thing I’m not attracted to Asahina-senpai.” Soon, Aoi is about to go inside the school, “Good seeing you today, Fujiki-kun,” she said with a small smile before she went inside.

 

“Yeah. You too.” Yusaku said in a neutral voice.

 

Ai comes out of Yusaku’s duel disk for a bit. “I don’t see why you have to go to school,” he said, “we just save Link VRAINS again, and yet here you are, at school.”

 

“I’m still 16 years old, Ai,” Yusaku told his Ignis, “so I have to go to school.”

 

“True, but it would of been fun if you just skipped school since we’re heroes.” Ai pouted a bit, if he has a mouth. Then he went back inside Yusaku’s duel disk

 

Soon, Yusaku and Takeru went inside the school and headed to their classes.

* * *

 

The boys went inside the classroom and their teacher looks at them. “You two are very late.”

 

“Sorry about that, sensei, it won’t happen again.” Takeru said.

 

“It better not. Now go to your seats,” she told them, and they went up to their seats.

 

Before class began, a girl with long dark purple hair and dark brown eyes and is wearing the girl’s school uniform came rushing in.

 

“I-I’m so sorry that I’m late! My alarm didn’t go off and I miss the bus-“ she tried explaining, but she tripped and landed on the floor. “Ow! Not again!”

 

Misaki Tanizaki. A 1st year like Yusaku and Takeru. She is a very timid girl and is sometimes gets nervous. She is also sometimes a klutz and gets bullied often.

 

Shima then laughs at Misaki when she tripped, “What an idiot!”

 

“Ungh! Don’t laugh at me about my clumsiness!” Misaki whined as she is getting up.

 

“Shima, out in the hall, Tanizaki, take your seat,” the teacher told them, so Shima went out to the hall as he starts complaining while Misaki goes to her seat.

 

Takeru turns around and looks as Misaki, “You okay, Misaki-chan?” He asked.

 

Misaki’s face turns bright red when Takeru asked her the question, “Y-yes, Homura-san, I’m okay…,” she replied, “I-I just have to be c-carful next time.”

 

Takeru gives Misaki a smile, “That’s good.” He then turns around as he is about to be ready to study, while Misaki gives out of lovely sigh while she stares at him romantically.

 

“Okay, class, today’s lesson will be about ancient history.”

* * *

 

School day is finally over. Yusaku and Takeru pack their stuff and they were about to head out.

 

“Hey, Fujiki-kun, Homura-san,” a voice called out to them and they both turn around to a girl with raven hair with dark purple hair on her bang that is covering her right eye and her left eye is white and she is wearing a girl’s school uniform and she is carrying a Ouija board underneath her arm.

 

“Would you two like to speak with the dead on my Ouija board?”

 

Airi Shimanouchi. Another 1st year like Yusaku and Homura. She likes to communicate with the dead and ghosts all the time and she also a fanatic of old history. Takeru is kind of scared of her when she talks to ghost, because he is clearly deathly afraid of ghosts.

 

“Uh, t-talking to g-ghosts on a board? N-no thanks, Shimanouchi-san. I’ll pass.” And Takeru went out to the door.

 

“You know, talking about the dead and ghosts is not Takeru’s thing, so you shouldn’t say that in front of him.” Yusaku told her.

 

“Hey, I can’t help if I’m into spiritual stuff,” she said, “it’s his loss.”

 

Yusaku then turns around and leaves the classroom. He walks to Takeru to takes calming breaths to keep calm. “You okay, Takeru?” He asked his friend.

 

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Why does Shimanouchi-san have to mention the g word?” A sweat drop appeared on his head just thinking about Airi’s spiritual communications.

 

Ai pops out of Yusaku’s duel disk and looks at Takeru. “You know, Flame would calm you down about this whole g word and the whole Shimanouchi thing in no time.”

 

Suddenly, Takeru got a little sad and looks down at the floor. Ai just realized what he just said and he got sad too. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have mention his name. I know the others are gone, but I just know that they are still alive, somewhere.”

 

Takeru looks back up and tries his best to give his smile. “Yeah. I hope so too. We just need to have hope that all the Ignis will come back.”

 

Yusaku looks at Ai and Takeru and feels bad about them. “Come on, let’s go to Cafe Nagi.” Takeru nods, then Ai went back inside Yusaku’s duel disk and the boys left the school.

* * *

 

Business seems to be booming at Cafe Nagi. Takeru is serving all the hot dogs to the customers while Yusaku is trying his best to cook the hot dogs. They sometimes switch roles to make things a little faster.

 

“Wow! I never seen so many people ordering a lot of hot dogs,” Takeru said as he enter the hotdog van, “did Kusanagi-san have this much customers all the time?”

 

“Not really.” Yusaku said, and he didn’t even turn around to look at Takeru because he is too busy cooking.

 

“Okay! Switch time! I’ll do the cooking and you do the serving.” Yusaku nodded when Takeru said that and he went out of the hotdog van while Takeru started cooking.

 

Yusaku quickly served all of the food to the customers as fast as he can.

 

“Playmaker-sama, be careful, you might bump into someone.” Ai whispered through Yusaku’s duel disk.

 

“Don’t worry, Ai. I never bump into someone while serving.” He said calmly, but then-

 

_BLAM!_

 

Yusaku landed on the floor with his butt and then a cup landed on his head and he feels something wet and sticky. He realized that the cup was filled with soda.

 

“I am so sorry about, I didn’t see you th-“ Yusaku stopped talking for a moment as he looked at the person he bumped into.

 

He has white hair with blue streak, light blue eyes, is wearing a pink shirt with a gray short jacket over it and some black pants and some slip on shoes. He also has a hotdog on his head. He looks at Yusaku and is surprised to see him.

 

“Revolver.” Yusaku said quietly as he said his Link VRAINS avatar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOOHHH!!! Yusaku and Ryoken are meeting at the Cafe Nagi once again, but they kind of bump into each other and they have food and drinks on their drinks. I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway, how will Yusaku react when Ryoken talks to himself, when Ryoken is actually talking to his ghost father? Stay tune. Also, you’re probably wondering why an OC character of mine like Misaki Tanizaki is crushing on Takeru like that. Don’t worrying, it’s only one-sided on Misaki’s side, I am a full Entrustshipper here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See you soon on chapter 3!


	4. Turn 105: Awkwardness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken has the ghost of his dead father inside his head and nobody except him can see him, he meets his old childhood friend, Kanata Funakoshi, and his former classmate, Manato Yamaguchi, just by coincidence, and now he met Playmaker and the Dark Ignis, again. At least things can't get any worse, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3 of Father Thy Blood. Recap: Yusaku and Takeru get their life back to normal after the Ignis Warfare, although 5 out of 6 Ignis are now gone, but they still having a normal life. The boys, along with Aoi Zaizen, almost got cleaning duty when their upperclassman, Manato Yamaguchi, caught them being late to school and when he learns that Yusaku and Takeru are helping out with Kusanagi's hotdog truck as he is visiting his brother, Jin, at the hospital, but they got lucky when their other upperclassman, Itsuki Asahina, took their place for cleaning duty. We were also introduce to Misaki Tanizaki, a shy and bullied girl who has a major crush on Takeru, and Airi Shimanouchi, a girl who likes dead stuff and communicating with ghosts and sprits, which makes Takeru scared of because he is scared of ghosts. We are later shown of Yusaku and Takeru having a lot of customers at Cafe Nagi and they get to work, but Yusaku bumps into someone and spills someone's order on him and the person he bumps into. That person is Ryoken Kogami himself. So, chapter 3 will be taken place on the same time as chapter 2, but it will be on Ryoken's point of view only. Now onward to the story!

The morning sun shines through Ryoken's eyes and he stir and groans. He opens his eyes and the first thing he saw is his ghostly father, giving him the fatherly smile.

"Good morning, son." He said.

The 18 year old sighed in frustration seeing his ghost father. ' _So it wasn't a dream after all. That's just great…'_ Ryoken thought to himself.

"You thought I was a dream, that's not very nice to your own father." Ryoken's eyebrow raise in confusion when his father said that, even when he didn't say anything.

_'_ _You can hear my thoughts now? That's just creepy and it's disrespecting my privacy. Although, it's kind a bit better than talking to you out loud where people would think that I'm crazy.'_

Ryoken gets out of bed and walks out of his room and heads out to the kitchen. He pulls out a frying pan, sprays some non-stick cooking spray on it, and turns on the stove. He also pulls out a carton of eggs and some bread. He cuts the bread into two slices and puts them into the toaster and lets it toast for 2 minutes. He then cracks two eggs into the frying pan and stirs them gently.

"Scramble eggs and toast?" His ghost father raises an eyebrow in confusion, "What happened to the pancakes with the smiley face that I make you and Kanata for breakfast?"

_'_ _I'm not a kid anymore, I don't do this childish stuff.'_ Ryoken communicated through his thoughts towards his father.

He finished making his scrambled eggs and puts them on a plate, then after 2 minutes, his toast is finished, so Ryoken puts them on the plate and spreads butter on top of it. Then he sat down and began to eat his breakfast.

"Isn't that what you told Kanata yesterday when she wanted you to call her by her nickname?" He asked. He turns his head around and looks at a photo that is on the desk. It was a photo of Ryoken when he was 8 years old, giving a piggyback ride to a 6 year old girl with light purple hair that is tied up in a bun and is wearing a poofy purple dress and they were both smiling. "I always like it when you two give each other nicknames. Kanashi and Ryomi. It's kind of cute."

_'_ _It's just a dumb nickname with just our first and last names combined.'_

"But it was still cute."

_'_ _Whatever…'_

"I still remember you talking about Kanata all the time when you were young."

Ryoken's eye twitch a bit and he stopped eating. _'What does that mean?'_

"I remember telling me that you always liked Kanata very much and you hope one day that when you grow up, you can ask Kanata to be your girlfriend."

Ryoken clutches his hand very tight when his ghost father said that and he can feel his blood boil a lot. _'Shut up…'_

"You also told me that you would never leave Kanata side no matter what if you two were together."

_'_ _Shut up.'_

"And then you said that you would marry her one day and that you can still live in this mansion and have lots of kids together and then you can take over my job after I retired or maybe become the King of SOL Tech."

Ryoken gets up, slams his hands on the table, and starts yelling at his ghost father. "SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! I DON'T LOVE FUNAKOSHI-SAN ANYMORE AND I AM NOT A GODDAMN CHILD ANYMORE!"

He then heard something clacker on the floor, which surprised Ryoken a bit. He turns around and sees Spectre standing there with his mouth opened in shocked and he sees the keys to his mansion on the floor, so Spectre must of dropped them. He just made a big mistake.

"Spectre? H-how long have you been standing there?" He asked his friend when he finally calmed down for a few seconds.

"Not long enough…" Spectre finally answered, kind of feeling scared of Ryoken when he outburst for no reason at all.

Ryoken takes a big sigh and sat back down and covers his face with his hands. He shouldn't have yelled like that to his ghostly father if he knew Spectre would come over.

"Um… Ryoken-sama, who is this Funakoshi-san you mentioned to… uh… your invisible dead father…?" He asked, kind of doubting Ryoken if his father really is back or if he's just losing it.

"No one. She's just this person I once knew during my childhood before I met you," he replied in a toneless voice.

"Lying about Kanata? That's not like you at all." His father said in a disappointing tone.

_'_ _Stay out of it.'_

"Oh. I see." He said quietly, bends down to pick up his key, and goes over to the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

Ryoken went back to eating his breakfast and the two boys didn't say a word at all and his ghost father kept quiet for a little while.

After finishing his breakfast, Ryoken got up from the table, "I'm going to take a walk for a bit," and after he said that, he went to his room to take a shower, and after a couple minutes of taking a shower, he brushed his teeth and got dressed into his usually pink shirt with his gray short jacket over it, some black Capri pants, and slip-on shoes, and then he headed out.

Spectre watched the whole thing from Ryoken finishing his breakfast to him leaving the house. He then makes a concern face as he wonders why his friend is acting like this all of the sudden.

* * *

 

Ryoken walks around Den City, trying to clear his mind off for a bit. He can't believe he just yelled in anger at his father right in front of Spectre. Now he might think he has gone crazy.

"Don't feel bad, son," his ghost father try to cheer him up, "I'm sure Spectre will understand."

_'_ _You're the one who made me pissed off when you keep talking about Funakoshi-san a lot and keep thinking that I still have a crush on her.'_ He communicated angrily through his thoughts.

"Speaking of which, I believe I see her over there."

"Huh?"

Ryoken looks up and his ghost father was right. He does see Kanata kind of far from here. She seems to be playing with a street dog. She always have a soft spot for animals.

Ryoken smiles a bit when Kanata is playing with the dog. She hasn't changed one bit and he's glad.

"Why don't you go talk to her for a bit?" His ghost father asked, which made Ryoken's smile fade away.

_'_ _I can't… You'll just piss me off again and I'll yell at you and she'll think that I'm crazy because I'm talking to myself,'_ he keeps on looking at his old childhood friend as she picks up the stray dog and cuddles with it, _'besides, I don't want Funakoshi-san to be involved into something bad that might get her hurt, just like what happened with Playmaker and his friends.'_

And Ryoken meant it. He formed an temporary alliance with Playmaker and his friends to stop Lightning and end the war, but that caused half of the team to be killed, including himself, but Playmaker managed to save everyone, and due to that, Soulburner, Blue Maiden, and Ghost Girl blamed him for almost getting them nearly killed by Lighting and Bowman, Ryoken doesn't know how Playmaker feels about him, but he knows that Spectre doesn't blame him for what happened, so he feels that if anything bad happens to Kanata, then she might blame him too, and that's his worst fear.

So, Ryoken turns to the right side and continues on walking, but not before he caught of glimpse of Kanata's big goofy smile, the same one that she still has when she was just a kid.

* * *

It's already the afternoon, and Ryoken hasn't eaten anything since breakfast. He is now at Den City's Main Square.

He sees a lot of people around, and he also sees a hotdog truck too. He assumes that Shoichi Kusanagi have open business again since the Ignis Warfare is over. He doesn't mind having a hot dog for lunch. He walks through the whole crowd towards the hotdog truck.

"Do you come here often, Ryoken?" His ghost father asked.

Ryoken turns his head and looks at his father for a moment. _'I've been a regular for a while. The food is pretty good, but that's not why I've come here.'_ He only comes to Cafe Nagi to spy on Playmaker back since they were enemies, but now he hasn't come here at all unless it's something important to tell Playmaker about.

"You should pay attention to where you are walking. Otherwise you will bump-"

_BLAM!_

Ryoken falls to the ground on his butt and a hot dog landed on his head.

"into someone." His ghost father finally finished the words.

_'_ _Thanks for the reminder…'_ Ryoken communicate bitterly through his thoughts.

"I am so sorry about, I didn't see you th-" The person who Ryoken bumped into spoke, but then stops for a moment. Ryoken looks up and looks at the person and he is surprised who he bumped into.

The person has blue and pink spiky hair and has emerald eyes, wears a black shirt and jeans and some sneakers and is also wearing a Cafe Nagi apron, and his left wrist is equipped with a old fashion duel disk, he's also covered in soda. He recognize him as Playmaker's real life persona, Yusaku Fujiki.

"Revolver." Playmaker said quietly as he stares at him for a moment. Of all the people he barely knows, he just had to bump into Playmaker.

"…Hello Playmaker." He greeted like he is a normal person.

"Revolver-chan! Long time no see buddy! How are you doing today?" The Dark Ignis greeted to Ryoken like an idiot he is.

Ryoken doesn't know why it's acting like that, but it's annoying. He tiredly sighs a bit. "Hello, Dark Ignis…"

"H-hey! Why aren't you calling by my name anymore?!" The Dark Ignis whined, which annoys Ryoken even more.

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about…" He stopped looking at the Dark Ignis and looks at Playmaker. "What happened to Shoichi Kusanagi?"

"He's at the hospital visiting his brother, so me and Takeru are running the hotdog truck until he's back."

So Soulburner is here too. It might be best if he didn't come here. Oh, who is he kidding, Soulburner doesn't know what Ryoken really looks like in real life, he only said his real name.

"Are you…here to buy a hot dog?" Playmaker asked kind of awkward that Ryoken is here.

"I'm kind of hungry, so I guess so." Ryoken said.

"What kind of hot dog and drink would you like then?"

"Just a cheese hot dog and a diet cola."

"Okay. I'll have that order in… probably a few minutes."

"Speaking of cola, Playmaker-sama, you might want to wipe yourself off of the spilled one. Also the cup on your head is a good hat for you." The Dark Ignis commented. Playmaker knocks the cup out of his head and heads over to the hotdog truck.

So Ryoken waited patiently for his lunch to be ready. "So that boy that you brought home and became my subject for the Hanoi Project 10 years ago is actually Playmaker, huh," his ghost father said in amusement, "so not only did you call the police on me, but you also lie to me about Playmaker's identity."

Ryoken ignores what his ghost father said. He really is a bad person, is he?

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Ryoken Kogami." Ryoken's eyes widen in surprise as he recognize that voice. He turns around and sees a boy with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and is wearing the same boy's school uniform as Playmaker and Soulburner and he is around the same age as Ryoken.

"Manato Yamaguchi."

"I never thought I would see you again after you got expelled at Den City High School." Manato crosses his arms as he said that.

"What are you doing here?" Ryoken asked his former classmate.

"I just want to see some underclassman of mine if they are really "helping" their "friend's" job, even though working is against school rules," Manato explained to his former classmate, "what brings you here in a dump like this?"

Ryoken gives Manato a glare, "I'm a regular here."

"Really?" He gives Ryoken a glare too. "Do you know what's in this… food you are about to eat? It's basically not healthy for you."

Ryoken's eyebrows knot in annoyance. Manato always have been horrible towards Ryoken since he began high school. He is so glad he's not in high school anymore. "So? It doesn't matter if the hot dogs aren't healthy, it's still good."

"Hmph, still as stubborn as usually, Ryoken Kogami. I'm not surprised."

Ryoken wishes he could punch Manato in the face, but he can't because there are people here and he didn't want to cause trouble, so he just let that slide.

"Yamaguchi-senpai?" Ryoken turns around and sees Playmaker getting his lunch, which is in a bag, and he looks at Manato. He knows him?

"Hello, Fujiki-kun. I just came here to see you and Homura-san working this dump." Manato commented.

"Well, it's not a dump, business is booming, a lot, so we are working really hard for Kusanagi-san."

"I can see that."

This is making Ryoken confused a lot. "How do you two know each other?" He asked, not caring which one would answer, because he dislikes both of them.

So Playmaker answered first, "Yamaguchi-senpai is my upperclassman in school, but Re-" Playmaker stopped for a moment because he was about to say his Link VRAINS name, but he clears his throat and continues speaking, "Kogami-san, how do you know Yamaguchi-senpai."

Ryoken stayed quiet. He really doesn't want to talk about it, but Manato only answer it for him and he didn't even tell him to do that. "Ryoken Kogami used to go to Den City High as well, but got expelled on his 3rd and final year because of him being involved in a fighting, in school."

"Fighting in school? Ryoken, that's not like you at all." His ghost father said in a disappointing tone.

_'_ _This is none of your concern, father.'_

"Oh. I see. I guess you could of been my upperclassman as well, Kogami-san." Playmaker said.

"Now it's my turn to ask a question," Manato said, "Fujiki-kun, how one Earth do you know Ryoken Kogami?"

There is no way Playmaker is going to say that he saved him from his father's experiment 10 years ago or that he is a cyber terrorist in Link VRAINS. Manato will just call him a freak, so Ryoken answered the question for Playmaker. "Like I said before, I'm a regular at Cafe Nagi, and I sometimes see Play-" he makes a fake cough really loud. As much as Ryoken doesn't like Playmaker and his Dark Ignis, he can't reveal his identity as the hero of Link VRAINS, "I mean, Fujiki, all the time at the table with his table doing school work. That's all."

"Yeah. What he said."

Manato looks at Playmaker for a moment, then at Ryoken, and then Playmaker again. "Very well then. I'll leave you two alone, for now." And with that, Manato leaves.

Playmaker sets down Ryoken's lunch down and sits down at the table. "What was that for, Revolver?" He asked in a whisper tone." You almost reveal my identity as Playmaker."

"And you almost reveal my identity as Revolver," Ryoken replied in a whisper tone as well, "if Link VRAINS wasn't closed, then I wouldn't have dueled you in a second."

"And maybe you would actually beat Playmaker in the duel and kill the Ignis." His ghost father told him.

_'_ _Right. That too.'_

"So, about you and Yamaguchi-senpai," Playmaker began to say, "he said that you two know each other at Den City High School before you were expelled. Were you guys friends?"

Ryoken made a disgusted face when Playmaker asked that, "No way. I wouldn't be friends with a guy like that if he were the last person on Earth," he said, "and I would rather be friends with the Dark Ignis."

The Dark Ignis' eye glitters when Ryoken said that. "Really?"

"No."

"Boo!"

Ryoken grabs the bag with his lunch in it and gets up from the table. "Anyway, thanks ordering this. I doubt we'll see each other again." And so Ryoken leaves Cafe Nagi and headed home.

* * *

When Ryoken got home, and after he finished his late lunch/early dinner, he went to his room and laid on his bed in thought.

He has the ghost of his dead father inside his head and nobody except him can see him, he meets his old childhood friend, Kanata Funakoshi, and his former classmate, Manato Yamaguchi, just by coincidence, and now he met Playmaker and the Dark Ignis, again, and he didn't even duel them.

Soon it was nighttime, and Stardust Road began to glow. Ryoken turns his head around and looks at the beautiful ocean through his window.

"Such a beautiful sight," his ghost father said with a smile, "the one thing that I'm not disappointed at is watching with you."

Ryoken didn't say anything. It was true. The only good thing with his father is watching Stardust Road with him when he was a kid. He just wish this didn't turn out like this…

After what it seems to be like an hour or two, Ryoken fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the 3rd chapter of Father Thy Blood. And in case anyone is confuse, I will pin down the names on both Yusaku and Ryoken's POVs in the story. For Yusaku's POV, he will call Ryoken as Revolver, Ai as Ai, Takeru as Takeru, and Manato Yamaguchi as Yamaguchi, while in Ryoken's POV, he will call Yusaku as Playmaker, Ai as The Dark Ignis, Takeru as Soulburner, and Manato Yamaguchi as Manato. I don't know about Itsuki, Misaki, Airi, and Kanata, for all I know, Itsuki, Misaki, and Airi are part of Yusaku's POV of the story while Kanata, along with some new characters for this story, will be in Ryoken's POV. That's all I'm gonna say for now. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Comment on what you guys think of it!


	5. Turn 106: Flower Field

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken bumps into Kanata once again and he reminisce his past at the flower field with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 people! I’m getting hella excited here! Recap: Dr. Kogami is surprised that Ryoken doesn’t do any of the things he likes when he was a kid, like pancake smiley face and calling Kanata “Kanashi”. Then he reminisce on Ryoken’s crush on Kanata on how he would be Kanata’s boyfriend and that he would marry her one day, which made Ryoken mad and yells at his ghost father, but Spectre came to his home and is shock that Ryoken screamed like that. Soon, Ryoken left his home to take a walk and he sees Kanata playing with a stray dog, but he doesn’t want to talk to her because his ghost father might say something that will piss him off and that Kanata will might think he’s crazy. Not only that, but if anything bad happens in the future and Kanata gets involve in it, then she will blame him for that bad thing like how Takeru, Aoi, and Emma blamed him for what happened in Mirror Link VRAINS, so he just leaves her be. Soon he came across the Cafe Nagi and thought he might get something to eat, then he bumps into Yusaku, literally. After an awkward order, Ryoken meets Manato, where we learn that Ryoken was a student at Den City High School and that he got expelled in his 3rd and final year of it because he got involve in some fight, guess Takeru isn’t the only fist fighter in VRAINS here. When Ryoken’s order is finished, he left Cafe Nagi with it and went home. And that’s pretty much it. Now, onward to the story!!!

A couple of days were pretty smooth since Ryoken only talk with his ghost father through his thoughts and not his mouth, well, he accidentally used his mouth when Spectre comes in, since makes Spectre uncomfortable.

Spectre is extremely worried about his friend and his leader. Always talking by himself and thinking it's his father back from the dead. If he keeps on thinking his father is there, then people, including Faust, Baira, and Genome, will think Ryoken is crazy.

So, Spectre decided to do one thing to help his dear friend.

* * *

On that morning, Ryoken dropped his fork that landed in his scrambled eggs and toast when Spectre told him that he is going somewhere that will help him and it shocked him very much.

"Mental hospital?!"

"I'm terribly sorry, Ryoken-sama, but you always keep yelling at nothing and sometimes I see you make these weird faces," Spectre explained, "I thought maybe a mental hospital can help you with your problem."

Spectre planned this? Spectre?! Ryoken can't believe that he planned this out! "Spectre, I am not staying at the Den City Hospital with a bunch of people who think they are from the future, which they are not, or have health issues for days, or months, or years!" He angrily explained.

"But it will help you with your issue." Spectre said.

"What issue?! The fact that my dead father is back as a ghost and I'm the one who can see him and you guys can't?!"

"That issue, Ryoken-sama."

Ryoken then groans in frustration. "What about the Knights of Hanoi? Who's going to lead them if their leader is in a nut house?"

"I've already settle that as well," he said, "I will be taking over your position until you are fully recover from your issue."

Ryoken clutch his fist for a moment, and then gets up. "I'm need some air." And he headed out the door.

"Wait! Ryoken-sama! You're still in your night outfit!"

* * *

Ryoken is laying on his back on the fountain of the Den City Main Square, looking at the sky.

"So you're going to a mental hospital to get rid of me," his ghost father said sounding very upset, "do you wish to get rid of me that much?"

_'_ _It's not my idea, you know. You're the one who keeps making me talk out loud towards you whenever Spectre comes.'_ Ryoken used his thoughts to communicate with his father.

"I know, but I'm still upset that if you go through the treatments, then I might disappear for good."

_'_ _Well, that might be a good thing. I'm sort of scared of you, not because you're a ghost, but because you figure out what I did 10 years ago. Maybe I should give Spectre credit for sending me to an asylum.'_

"Mental hospital, son. It's a mental hospital."

_'_ _That's basically the same thing.'_

Suddenly, a shadow blocked the sunlight that Ryoken is facing. He looks up and sees a familiar face.

"Good morning, Ryomi!" Kanata gives Ryoken a warm smile.

Ryoken gives out a tiring sigh. "Morning, Funakoshi-san…"

"Kanashi."

"Whatever…"

He gets up and moves a space so Kanata can sit down with him.

"I'm glad I got to see you again, but tell me, Ryomi, why are you going out in your pajamas?" She asked curious.

"I'm not in my pajamas." He said.

"You are, son, you just didn't notice it." His ghost father commented.

Ryoken looked down at his body and it turns out that it's true. He's still wearing his pajamas. He was too stress out about going to a mental hospital that he forgot to get dress. And he probably didn't brush his teeth and took a shower, so he must really smell bad. Then he blushed in embarrassment.

Kanata giggles at Ryoken's blushing face. "Ryomi, you always mix things up all the time, just like when we were kids! I really miss that!"

"I don't always mix things up all the time…" He try to decline.

"Yes you do! Remembered when you played with your dad's experiment and it suddenly exploded and your hair turned green and it had to be turned back to it's original color for 4 days?"

Ryoken's face blushed in embarrassment even more.

"Or the time when you draw some of your dad's reports with color pencils and he grounded you for 2 months?"

He covered his burning face in embarrassment when she mentioned that one.

"Or that one time where you spilled your chocolate milk all over your dad's lab coat and he made you clean it with a animal brush?"

Ryoken's face is so red with embarrassment, it almost looks like a tomato. "I was only a kid…"

"But you were still a good person when you try to undo your mix ups." Kanata gives him her sweet smile.

Ryoken may have undo his embarrassing mistakes, but he can't undo his guilty mistake of calling the police on his father to save 6 kids from the Lost Incident, or forming an alliance with Playmaker and his team that cause 4 out of 5 of the group, including himself, from getting them nearly killed by the Light Ignis and Bowman.

Kanata may say that he is a good person, but he is truly not a good person anymore.

"Oh! I want to give you something, Ryomi." Kanata pulls something out of her coat.

Ryoken takes a look at the item Kanata pulled out. "A crown made out of bluebells?"

"Bluebells are your favorite flowers, silly!" She said with a smile as she puts the flower crown on his head, "I picked them at the flower field that we always go when we were kids."

Right. Ryoken remembered that he always take Kanata to the flower field and play together there and lay down there and look up at the sky before his father created the Lost Incident. In fact, he was the one who first showed her the flower field.

**_FLASHBACK_ **

_"_ _Oh wow! I never seen so many flowers in one big field!" A 6 year old Kanata said in amazement._

_"_ _I saw it when I was on my way home, and I've been visiting here for the last 3 days now." A 8 year old Ryoken explained._

_"_ _You've been here for 3 days already and you just now showing me this?!" She asked acting like she's shock. "Shame on you, Ryomi!"_

_A sweat-drop appeared on Ryoken's head when she said that. "Um… Sorry, Kanashi."_

_"_ _As punishment, I turn you into a horse!" Kanata commands, as she is pretending to be a magical witch, so Ryoken does what she said and went down on his knees._

_"_ _Nyeeeh!" He pretended to be a horse._

_"_ _Now ride me all around the flower field immedientlly!" She climb onto Ryoken's back._

_He winced in pain because Kanata feels heavy when she is on his back, but he did what she said. "Nyeeeh!" And he began walking on four legs like a horse all around the flower field._

_After a few minutes, Ryoken got tired and dropped down on his knees on an area that are filled with bluebells. Kanata gets off his back and sat down. "Thank you, horse, I shall now turn you back into a human boy."_

_"_ _Phew…" Ryoken turns over to his back and lays there looking up at the sky with a smile on his face. Kanata lays on the ground on her back and her head almost touches Ryoken's head._

_"_ _So, Ryomi, why do you started to come here for 3 days now?" She asked her friend._

_"_ _I don't know," he told her, "for some reason I always come here and lay down to look up at the sky and somehow I got super excited about the world."_

_"_ _The world?"_

_"_ _Yeah. I got super excited about the world. Maybe when I grow up, I want to travel all over the world."_

_Kanata made this big smile when Ryoken said that. "Me too!"_

_Ryoken looked at Kanata with a confused face. "Huh?"_

_"_ _I wanna travel all over the world with you too!" She said in excitement._

_Ryoken blushed when she said that. "W-wait a minute! What do you mean?!"_

_"_ _Right now, as I'm laying here on the flowers, I got super excited about the world too! So, when you said that you want to travel all over the world when you grow up, I wanna travel the world with you when I grow up too!"_

_"_ _R-really?"_

_"_ _Yeah! So let's both get excited about the world together!"_

_Ryoken gives Kanata a big smile. "Right!"_

_The two friends laugh in excitement and after they finished laughing, they look up to the sky and watch the flower petals blow all over the sky._

**_FLASHBACK ENDED_ **

Ryoken still remember that he and Kanata always go to the flower field to look up at the sky and get excited about the world together, but that was when he was a kid and he had no trouble back then.

"Ryomi? Hello? Earth to Ryomi?" Ryoken blinked when Kanata waves her hand over his face.

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. I was just reminiscing." He told her.

"Was it about our time at the flower field?"

"Yeah, a little…"

"You know, I still go to the flower field all the time now and look up at the sky and still get excited about the world," she explained to him, "what about you, Ryomi? Do you still go to the flower field and look up at the sky and still get excited about the world?"

Ryoken looked at Kanata and his eyebrows knotted. He hasn't gone to the flower field at all since the Lost Incident. The only time he laid on a flower field was when after he was defeated by the Light Ignis in Mirror Link VRAINS. "Uh… Sure?" And of course he would lie to her.

"Really?!" Her eyes are filled with excitement and he missed that a bit. "How come I didn't see you there?!"

Basically, because he was too busy trying to kill the Ignis in Link VRAINS. There is no way Ryoken would tell her that. She'll hate him if she found out her old childhood friend is a cyber terrorist. "Um… Busy. With… school work." Another lie. Then it came to him. "Funakoshi-san-"

"Kanashi."

"Whatever. How come I didn't see _you_ at the flower field as well?"

He waited for an answer from Kanata, but she was quiet for a moment, and then she finally spoke. "Same as you. Busy with school work."

Ryoken raised an eyebrow when she said that. _'Is it me… or did Funakoshi-san just hesitate a bit?'_ He thought to himself in question.

Ryoken and Kanata just sat on the fountain in silence and they both look down at the ground. After what it seems like a couple of minutes, Kanata gets up and breaks the silence. "Well, I should get going. It was really nice talking with you, Ryomi."

Ryoken gives her a nod. "Yeah, you too."

And with that, Kanata waves goodbye to Ryoken and heads off. Ryoken gets up as well and heads home. His ghost father didn't even said one word that would of piss him off. Somehow he's glad he kept quiet.

When Ryoken entered his home, Spectre greeted him, then he gave him a confusing look.

"Ryoken-sama, why are you wearing a flower crown on your head?"

And Ryoken's face turned bright tomato red in embarrassment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 is done. I thought I might give more detail on Ryoken’s childhood of when he goes to the flower field as a kid and I wanted Kanata to be part of going to the flower field too. I just love how Ryoken was so opened to Yusaku when he talked about his flower field as he died in episode 98, but when episode 103 of VRAINS came out, the writers just throw that out and turn Ryoken back to being stubborn and I hated it! I just hope when episode 105 comes out, Ryoken can approach to Yusaku at Stardust Road when Yusaku finds out that Ai is a bad guy now, and I hope Ryoken doesn’t gloat to Yusaku saying that he’s right! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please comment on what you think of it.


	6. Turn 107: Mental Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken has now arrived at the mental hospital, where he meets other patients, and begins his new life in this asylum hell-life...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we are on Chapter 5 of Father Thy Blood! Recap: Ryoken was shocked that Spectre is sending him to a mental hospital all because his ghost father is in his mind. So Ryoken went for some air, but in his pajamas. He then later meets with Kanata again and she notices Ryoken's pajamas and reminds him about all of the mix ups he did when he was a kid, which made Ryoken embarrassed a lot. Then Kanata gives him a flower crown made out of bluebells, which are Ryoken's favorite flowers, and she got them from the flower field that she and Ryoken go to when they were kids, and Ryoken reminisce his childhood of him and Kanata laying down at the flower field and get excited about the world. Sound familiar people? After their little conversation, Kanata leaves and Ryoken went back home and Spectre asked him about the flower crown on his head. This chapter will be Ryoken going to live in the mental hospital at the Den City Hospital so that he can be cure of seeing his ghost dead father, but it's not going to be easy. Also, new characters will be featured in this chapter. Now, let's start the chapter!

The drive to the hospital wasn't that difficult. What's difficult is that he has to live in an asylum for who knows how long in Ryoken's mind. Spectre tells him it's for his own good. Couldn't he just hire an excorist to get rid of the ghost in his mind?

After a couple of minutes of the drive, they finally arrived at Den City Hospital. Spectre turns off the engine of the car and both he and Ryoken exit the car, and they went inside.

Spectre walks up to the front counter to where a nurse is on the computer typing something. The nurse looked up and looked at him.

"Ryoken Kogami. Here as your new mental hospital patient." He explained to her.

She typed down the name onto the computer and checks his files. "Okay. Patient #40196. Transferring to the mental hospital because he claimed that he is seeing someone who claims to be their father, who died 7 years ago, and nobody but him can see him. Is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

Ryoken crossed his arms in annoyance as the nurse types down the computer and Spectre walks up to him.

"I guess I bid you farewell, Ryoken-sama," he said, "I hope you get well very soon." And with that, Spectre leaves the hospital, leaving only just Ryoken. Oh. And his ghost father too.

The nurse got up from the desk and walks up to Ryoken and gives him a boring look. "Please follow me." She then walks away, and Ryoken follows her.

They stopped at the door that says "Mental" and the nurse opens it and they both went inside. Ryoken stops for a moment and looks at all the mental hospital patients who are all staring at him.

A man who looks like he's 21 years old with blonde slick hair and violet blue eyes gives out a smirk, and this smirk isn't a good thing in Ryoken's mind while another man who is kind of around Ryoken's age with brown "Carl Switzer" hair and wears nerdy glasses examines him a bit.

Another man that's probably a year older than Ryoken, probably around 19 or 20, with dark green hair that goes past his shoulders, is laying on a couch and he glares at him and gives out a mean grunt. He doesn't seem like the friendly type in Ryoken's eyes.

"Wow, some guy just enter this dump all of the sudden!" A girl who is somewhere around Ryoken's age with dark purple hair tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon and bright green eyes said in amazement.

"I think that's the new patient here. Here because he claims he sees his late father, who died 7 years ago." A woman who is probably in her late 20s with long greenish blonde hair that goes down her back and dark blue eyes, has mahogany eye makeup on, and wears a black coat over her mental hospital outfit replied.

Ryoken just recently got here and these messed up people are already talking about him.

"Hey, Kogami," the nurse called out to him, which made him turn his head to look at her, "are you coming, or are you just going to stand there?"

Ryoken follows to where the nurse is going. They both stopped at a door. The nurse writes on a plaque with Ryoken's name on it. "This will be your room," she explained to him, "I also put your new clothes on the bed."

Ryoken looks inside his mental hospital room and sees a blue shirt and blue pants that are similar to the outfits those nut-cases are wearing now on the bed. "What? No straitjacket?"

"This is a mental hospital, not an asylum."

"That's basically the same thing…"

The nurse rolls her eyes in annoyance and then leaves.

Ryoken walks into the room he is now going to be living in until his ghost father is gone, he hoped. He took off the clothes he was wearing and puts on the blue mental hospital outfit that is on the bed. Then he puts his pink shirt, his Capri pants, and slip on shoes in the dresser, but leaves the blazer out. Then he leaves his room and heads towards the rec room where all of the patients are still staring at him.

"So you're the patient that claims to see your dead dad, huh?" The blonde slicked haired man said.

Ryoken looks at him for a moment, "I'm not claiming I see him, I really do see him."

"Suuure you are." He doesn't believe him. Of course… "Since you're new here, I think it be a perfect time to introduce ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Katsu Tanaka, but you can call me The King of all the Casinos I've been to!" He gives himself a bow like he's some kind of king, which made Ryoken's eyes roll a bit.

"Tanaka-san is amazing. He even made me his personal assistant," the man with the "Carl Switzer" and nerdy glasses said, "oh, by the way, my name is Osamu Ando. At your service." He lifted his hand to give Ryoken a handshake, which he did a little bit.

"Don't listen to those two, new kid," the woman with the greenish blonde hair and mahogany eye makeup on her eyes told, "Tanaka isn't the 'King of the Casinos', he just has a gambling problem"

"That explains a lot…"

"Just try to ignore him." Tanaka made an annoyed face when she said that. "Names Moriko Hirabayashi. Welcome to mental hospital, kid." She gives Ryoken a grin.

"Ryoken Kogami." He gives Hirabayashi and the other nut-cases a bow of introduction. He feels like he's back in school again, but this isn't a school.

"Nice to meet you," Hirabayashi shakes Ryoken's hand, then she notices a red mark on his right hand, "nice tattoo you got there. The symbols here look kind of cool."

Ryoken looks down at his right hand. He covers the mark with his left hand, "Actually, it's a birthmark."

"Well, it still looks kind of cool."

Just then the girl with dark purple hair tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon came up to Ryoken close almost to his face, which surprises him. "Hiiiii! I'm Tomone Ohno, but you can call me Tomo for short," she said with just a energetic personality and with a smile on her face, "I hope we can get along just fine!"

"Uh… Sure, I guess…" Ryoken said weirdly as a sweat-drop appeared on his head.

Tomo turns around and faces towards the man with the dark green hair and she has these lovey dovey eyes when she faces him, which kind of made Ryoken confused, "Oh Yuki-senpai! Come over here and introduce yourself to Ryoken!"

He looks up and looks at Ryoken since he is laying on the couch and he look like he doesn't want to. "Why should I? It's just another mental patient just wanting to be cured from whatever disease or problem they have, right?"

"Yeah, but still we should be nice to the new comer. Like how I'm always nice to you?" She gives him a wink.

The man gives Tomo a disgusted look, then he gets up from the couch and walks away.

"Yuki-senpai! Wait!" Tomo starts to go after him.

_'_ _What the hell is up with that guy?'_ He thought to himself in question.

"That guy with the attitude is Nobuyuki Mizushima," Hirabayashi told Ryoken about his name, "it might be best if you just ignore him."

Ryoken gives out a nod. Obviously he's not here to make friends with these nut-cases, he just want to get rid of his ghost father and then go back to the things were.

And then all of the suddenly, the whack jobs starting introducing themselves to Ryoken all at the same time, which is making him overwhelmed, so he rushes away from them to the hallway.

He stops at his room and takes a breather from all that running. Then his ghost father appeared before him.

"You shouldn't have run away from those people, they were just trying to be friendly to you." He told him.

Ryoken gives him an annoying look, _'Those freaks were all over my face. I have to get away from them.'_ He communicated his ghost father through his thoughts.

"But since you are now at the mental hospital to try to get rid of me, you're also a freak too." He added.

Ryoken looks down at the floor, looking at bit upset and frustrated at the same time. _'This is my new life now?'_

Suddenly, he felt someone bump into his back lightly and he heard some kind of gaming sound effects. He turned around and sees some small person playing a video game on a hand-held gaming console and the person didn't even pay attention where they were going.

When the game is finished, the person looks up from the game and looks at Ryoken. The person is just a little kid, somewhere around 10 or 11 years old and it's a girl. She has short light brown hair and almost all of it is covered with a blue winter hat and has green eyes. Her green eyes look similar to Playmaker's.

Ryoken wonder how did a little girl like her even ended up in this asylum in the first place.

"Um… Hi there. My name is Ryoken Kogami," he introduce himself to the little girl kind of awkwardly, "what's your name?"

The girl doesn't say anything or even tells him her name. She just stares at him the whole time. Then after what has been like 10 minutes, she looked down at her gaming console, started a new game, and walked away from him.

Ryoken just stood there dumbstruck when the girl walked away from him. "Was it something I said?" He just shrugs a bit and walks inside his room and lays on the bed for a bit until lunch time.

* * *

Ryoken did his best to avoid these nut-cases and went up to the counter where a woman in her middle age and has a big nose, has dark red hair tied in a bun, and is wearing a long blue dress with a apron tied on it and is wearing a chef's hat on her head.

"Oi! New patient! I hope you enjoy Chef Opal's famous veggie mush!" She uses the kitchen handle to fill up some yucky mushy… food?

Ryoken looked really disgusted really this. He even feels like throwing up a bit. "Don't you have something edible?"

"In the old country, this is edible!" She lifts down the kitchen handle and the veggie mush is poured into the bowl. Some of it splattered on Ryoken's face.

Ryoken groaned and he walked away from the counter. He looked around to see if there is an empty table where he could just sit alone, but they were all full of people. He might as well eat in his room.

"Hey, kid. Over here." Ryoken turns his head towards a table and sees Hirabayashi waving her hand. He then sighs in defeat. _'I have no other choice, do I?'_ He walks over to the table where Hirabayashi is sitting, and he sits down.

"You got a little something on your face." She pointed it out.

"Yeah. I know," Ryoken grabs a napkin and wipes Chef Opal's "veggie mush" off of his face, "I'm not eating this slop. Veggie mush is just gross…"

"Then you should probably avoid Chef Opal's meat smoothie or her mushroom surprise dish." Hirabayashi commented, which made Ryoken stick his tongue out in disgust.

Hirabayashi looks around for a bit, then pulls something out of her black coat. It was a lighter and a cigarette. She puts the cigarette in her mouth, then lights up her lighter, puts the flame on the cigarette and she takes a puff out of it.

Ryoken was kind of surprised that Hirabayashi is a smoker, especially since she is in a mental hospital. He remembered when he was a kid, he saw Dr. Taki smoking too, but she quit smoking because he was the one who told her that smoking was bad for her, only because he watch something about smoking in health class.

Hirabayashi notices Ryoken staring at her. She pulls out another cigarette from the box. "You wanna take one?" She asked, offering him to smoke with her.

"No thank you," he declined politely, "smoking isn't very good for your lungs."

"Suit yourself, kid." She takes another puff from her cigarette.

Ryoken looks at one of the tables and sees the girl playing her gaming console, all alone.

His ghost father appears next to him as he obverses his son looking at the girl. "You seem to take interest in that little girl."

Ryoken's eyebrows knotted in annoyance. _'I'm not taking interest in some kid. I'm just a little concern about her sitting at the table by herself.'_

Hirabayashi noticed the look on Ryoken's face. "What's up with you?"

Ryoken looked at Hirabayashi in surprised when she asked that. "Oh. Um… I was just kind of curious about that girl sitting alone at that table." He told her, trying to avoid speaking with his ghost father through his thoughts.

"Tomo? She's not alone. She's sitting with Mizushima." She shows Ryoken to where Tomo is sitting and she is right. Tomo is indeed sitting with Mizushima. She is trying to feed him the veggie mush like some couples do whenever they are dating, but Mizushima looks like he's trying to avoid it and Tomo.

"No. I'm not talking about Ohno-san," he said, "I'm talking about that girl with the blue hat." He points to the girl with the blue hat to Hirabayashi as soon as he said those words.

Hirabayashi looks at the girl with the blue hat for a moment, and then turns back to Ryoken, "That's Chika Etsuko," she explained to him, "probably one of the youngest people to enter a mental hospital." She turns back to look at Chika and lifts her hand and waves it a bit. "Hey! Chika! Come over here!"

Chika looks up from the gaming console screen and looks at Hirabayashi. She gets up from the table she was sitting at and moves over to where Hirabayashi and Ryoken are sitting at right now, and she sits next to Hirabayashi.

"Chika, this is Ryoken Kogami," she explained to Chika, "he is the new patient at the mental hospital who claims he can see his dead father."

His eyebrows knotted when she said that. "Again, I'm not claiming that I can see him, I do see him."

Chika looks at Ryoken for a moment, then she looks down at her gaming console and plays on it.

"Oh Chika…" Hirabayashi sighs in a upset tone.

"Does… she hate me?" Ryoken asked. He already has Soulburner hating his guts because of the Lost Incident and what happened in Mirror Link VRAINS, he can't have a 10 or 11 year old hate him too all of the sudden, she doesn't even know that he's Revolver, Leader of the Knights of Hanoi. Wait… Does she even have a Link VRAINS account?

"Nah. She's been like this for probably 5 years now," she said, looking a bit sad, "her mom committed suicide."

Ryoken's eyes widen in shock when she said that. Suicide. It's a horrible word that he can think of.

"Her mom was pregnant during high school," she continued on, "and no, it wasn't Chika. She was pregnant with her brother, or half-brother. Her parents, Chika's grandparents, kicked her out of her house when she told them that she was pregnant, and then her boyfriend, her first kid's father, dumped her when she told him. Chika's dad took her in into his apartment he is living in. Then 6 years later, Chika was born, but 3 months after Chika was born, her half-brother disappeared all of the sudden."

Ryoken listens very careful to Hirabayashi as she tells him Chika's story. He might have this feeling who Chika's long lost half-brother is, but it's too soon to confirm it yet. Hirabayashi continues on though.

"6 months later, her half-brother was found and was send to the hospital, but wasn't the same after that. Her mom usually sends him to therapy to help him out and he feels a bit better. But by the time Chika turned probably 5 or 6 years old, she has been acting weird. She keeps staring up the light on the ceiling, rocking back and forth, doesn't like to be touched by someone, and not looking at her parents and her half-brother. Her dad thought she has some kind of mental illness, so he send her to the mental hospital. Her mom was so heartbreak that he did that that she went into a deep depression. Then later, she hung herself to death. Her body was found by her half-brother. Her father left town so he couldn't be asked questions, leaving Chika's half-brother all alone in the apartment. I saw the news myself, so did Chika. She got a bit upset when she heard the news that she never got to speak again."

Ryoken seemed to be a little sad after listening to that story. Chika loves her mother so much for as long as she can remember, but she ended up losing her. He kind of feels the same way he felt when his father died. "That… that kind of sucks…"

"Yeah. I wish I know who her half-brother is, but she won't say. Hell, she's been here for 5 years, she's probably forgotten she even has a half-brother."

Ryoken looks at Chika, who is still playing on her gaming console. She wasn't even paying attention to their conversation. And also, Chika's behavior that Hirabayashi mentioned, he also has this feeling what this behavior is.

* * *

Nighttime rolled over and almost all of these nut-cases are now asleep. The only people who are still up are Ryoken, Hirabayashi, and Chika.

Ryoken was supposed to be watching Stardust Road tonight at his home, but since he is now living in the mental hospital until his ghost father is gone, he can't even watch it.

"Enjoying some stargazing?" Hirabayashi asked.

Ryoken turns to look at her. "Nah. I was supposed to be looking out to Stardust Road tonight, but here I am…"

"A road that's made out of stardust? Are you sure you're only here because of you seeing your dad?" She asked, thinking that Stardust Road is just a road made out of stardust.

"No. It's where the planktons glow in the ocean very bright. It's really beautiful out there," he explained, "I used to watch it with my father when I was young, but… he's not here anymore…"

"Sorry."

"Hey, Hirabayashi-san, how did you ended up in the mental hospital?" He's curious about her mental health problem and what it is. And she better not say that she is from the future to save humanity…

"Been abused by my ex-boyfriend," she explained, "couldn't take it anymore, so I call the cops on him, and they send me here to help me recover. Been here for probably 6 or 7 years."

Ryoken made a sad face when she said that to him. "Sorry I asked…"

"It's fine. He was an asshole in the beginning, so I'm glad I ratted him out."

_'_ _I guess Hirabayashi-san doesn't feel guilty on calling the police on his ex-boyfriend,'_ he thought to himself, _'I wish I can be like her when I call the police on my father 10 years ago…'_

Sometimes he wishes that he didn't call the police on his father and he wouldn't have the virus inside of him, even if it was the Light Ignis, and his ghost wouldn't be inside his mind, but he didn't call the police, then those 6 victims wouldn't have survived. Either way, he would still regret everything.

He notices Chika yawning a bit, even when she is playing her gaming console.

"Looks like someone is ready for bed." Hirabayashi commented.

Chika rubs her eyes for a bit, meaning she is very tired.

"Come on, let's get you to bed. And don't stay up all night playing video games." Hirabayashi picks up Chika and carries her over her shoulder, then she turns to look at Ryoken and gives him a small smirk. "See you tomorrow, kid." And with that, she went to the hallway to Chika's room.

Even though she is too busy playing on her gaming console, Chika raises her hand up as a signal of saying good night.

Ryoken smiles a bit and then he went to his room, got into bed, and fall asleep as tomorrow will be his second day in this… new mental hospital life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the 5th chapter of Father Thy Blood. And we were all introduced to a lot of new characters in this chapter. As for Chika's half-brother, you are all probably wondering who that is. Well, I'm not going to tell you. You all are just going to figure that out yourselves. Anyway, please comment on what you think of this chapter and I hope to see you all soon in the next chapter!


	7. Turn 108: Jin and Itsuki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku meets up with Kusanagi and they talk about Jin's recovery and Ai (My version of the beginning of episode 104 of VRAINS), then Yusaku meets up with is upperclassman and they talk for a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Chapter 6 of Father Thy Blood is up and ready! Recap: Ryoken has arrived at the mental hospital and there he meets Katsu Tanaka, Osamu Ando, Moriko Hirabayashi, Nobuyuki Mizushima, Tomone Ohno, and Chika Etsuko. Ryoken learns about Chika’s past, where her mother committed suicide when her father send her to a mental hospital because of her behavior being a mental illness and her half-brother is living in her father’s apartment by himself, and Ryoken knows who Chika’s half-brother is, but not until he confirms it first. Then he learns about how Hirabayashi is transferred to the mental hospital when her ex-boyfriend abusive her and she called the police on him. And that’s about it. This chapter will be on Yusaku’s POV now and there will be some scenes from season 3 of VRAINS that will be added, if you guys don’t mind. So, anyway, let’s get on with the story!

It's that afternoon where Kusanagi opens up Cafe Nagi and there are a few people in the square around, so it's a good time to open up for business.

He flips over the meat as they cook a bit. "Kusanagi-san." He heard a voice and looks up from cooking the dogs and sees Yusaku greeting him at the truck. Yusaku is wearing his casual hoodie jacket and his jeans and sneakers.

The young adult gives a smile to his friend. "Hey Yusaku. Sit down." Yusaku goes over to the table and sat down. Kusanagi turns off the grill for a bit. He goes over to the coffee maker and makes coffee. When the coffee is done, he grabs two mugs from the top shelve and pours the coffee from the pot. He got out of the truck, puts the two mugs of coffee on the table and sat down at the table.

"Thanks for running the cart while I was away." He said with the smile.

"No problem. It was really booming, but Takeru and I manage to handle it," Yusaku told his friend, "is your brother okay?"

Kusanagi nods his head. "Yeah. After regaining consciousness, he's gotten a lot better now," he explained, "he might able to leave the hospital soon."

Yusaku gives out a smile when Kusanagi told him the good news. "I see. That's good."

"The doctor said that when he regained consciousness, Jin's memories of the Lost Incident vanished," Kusanagi told Yusaku, "weird, huh?"

Yusaku was surprised when Jin's memories of the Lost Incident are gone. Just like that. "His memories vanished?"

"Yeah. It's weird how all of the memories of the Lost Incident just disappeared for no reason at all."

Yusaku is confused on why Jin's memories of that… event disappeared like that. Then that one thing came to his mind. "Hm… I wonder…"

"What?" Kusanagi raises his eyebrow in curiosity.

"When Lightning dueled Revolver, he changed some of his consciousness data into extra life."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I think it might have been those memories of the Lost Incident."

Kusanagi didn't react when Yusaku said that. He just smiles. "I see. If that's true, that's a blessing in disguise."

Yusaku looks down at his coffee, trying his best not to think about the Lost Incident. Too many bad and horrible memories. "That experience was painful," he said, "if he's no longer trapped by his past, that's good."

Kusanagi gives a nod. "His life will now begin."

Yusaku looks back up to his friend with a smile. "Yeah."

"By the way, how's Ai holding up?"

Yusaku frowns for a bit and looks back down at his coffee. He asked Ai to come with him to see Kusanagi, but Ai just told him he didn't feel like it. "Well, besides his goofy and annoying personality being the same, and still watching those dumb soap operas with Roboppy, not so good," he told Kusanagi, "he still feels guilty about what happened with the other Ignises back at Mirror Link VRAINS. He's not even ready to go back to the Cyberse World."

Kusanagi frowns too when Yusaku said that. "I see." Then he smiles again and gets up. "Once Ai feels better and feels like he's ready to leave, he'll begin his new life, and then your new life will also begin."

Yusaku nods for a bit. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

"I know I'm right," Kusanagi said, "since you're here, eat something." And he goes inside his truck to resume his cooking.

"Thank you."

Yusaku grabs his coffee mug and drinks it a bit. He feels pretty bad that Ai is the only Ignis who survived this whole Ignis Warfare, so he must being having some survivor guilt right now. Right now, he needs to be there for his partner until he is ready to go back to the Cyberse World, even if it is destroyed…

"Hey, Fujiki-kun!"

Yusaku was surprised for a bit as a familiar voice called out his name. He turned around and he saw his upperclassman. He was wearing a t-shirt with a baseball logo on it and has a jean jacket over it, wearing some jeans as well, and sneakers too.

"Asahina-senpai? What are you doing here?" He asked.

"The boys in the baseball team told me about this business, so I thought I might try it out," he told his underclassman, "and I take it this is the place you and Homura-san helped out a bit."

Yusaku nods in replied.

Asahina gives out a big grin. "You're welcome! If I haven't stepped in, then you, Homura-san, and Zaizen-san would do all of the cleaning work."

"I really appreciate that, Asahina-senpai." He smiles for a bit.

Asahina gives Yusaku a thumbs up, then he goes up to Kusanagi to order. "Hi, can I get a chilly dog with a side a fries, please?"

"One chilly dog with fries coming right up." Kusanagi begins to cook Asahina's order.

Asahina goes over to the table to where Yusaku is sitting and sat down to wait for his order to come. "So, Fujiki-kun, do you come here often?" He asked.

"I guess so, but only for my studies." He said, trying to cover his secret as Playmaker.

"That's good," he said with a grin, "you have to study if you want to graduate, and since I'm on my last year of high school, I hope you do your best as an upperclassman in the 3rd year."

"Thanks." With the whole fighting the Knights of Hanoi back 3 months ago and stopping the Ignis Warfare a couple days ago, did Yusaku really had any time to study?

After a couple of minutes, Kusanagi comes out of the truck carrying Asahina and Yusaku's food. He placed them down at the table. "Enjoy." Then he went back to the truck.

Asahina took a bite on his chilly dog and he moans in a delicious way. "This is really good!" He exclaimed with his lunch in his mouth.

Yusaku laughs a little bit and then eats his hot dog.

Soon, Yusaku and Asahina finished their lunch already. "Man! Cafe Nagi really does make the best hotdogs! I should come here every lunch time nowadays." He said with a big grin.

"Probably not on school days, Asahina-senpai, you don't want Yamaguchi-senpai to give you cleaning duty again." Yusaku reminded his upperclassman.

"You're right. I'll come here on weekends then!" Then Asahina gets up from his seat and stretches a bit. Then he gives Yusaku a thumbs up. "See ya, Fujiki-kun! See you at school tomorrow!" And with that he left.

Yusaku smiles a bit as he watches his upperclassman leave. "He seems very energetic." Kusanagi commented.

"Well, that's Itsuki Asahina for you," Yusaku said, "always being energetic to his underclassmen."

Yusaku gets up from his seat and turns to look at his friend. "I should probably get going now. Thanks for the meal."

Kusanagi gives the teen a smile. "No problem. And again, thanks for running my cart."

After giving each other goodbye and saying they would see each other tomorrow, Yusaku heads home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. That was kind of short and a little normal in this chapter, even though the beginning is the scene at the beginning of episode 104 of VRAINS, but slightly different. But I hope you guys enjoyed it and I will post a new chapter for Father Thy Blood very soon, and it will be on Ryoken’s POV this time. I’ll see you guys soon!


	8. Turn 109: Tanaka the Jerk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken was just trying to defend Mizushima from Tanaka before getting himself into trouble, and after handling that situation, he sees someone that made him very surprised to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for Chapter 7 of Father Thy Blood! Recap: Yusaku visits Kusanagi at the hotdog truck and they talked about Jin's recovery when he consciousness is returned after Yusaku defeated Bowman, just like how episode 104 started and they talked about Ai of how he is dealing with guilt survivor. Then Asahina showed up because he wanted to have the Cafe Nagi's food and he and Yusaku talked for a bit. Asahina liked the food and he agrees to come here every weekend. And that's about it. I know the 6th chapter of Father Thy Blood is short, but I swear, this chapter will be longer. I think… Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Ryoken woke up when the sun light hit his eyes and he opens his eyes and sits up. He looks around and sees he wasn't in his room or his house.

_'_ _Damn it… So it wasn't a dream. I'm really in this nut-job place…'_ He thought to himself.

He turns around and sees his ghost father standing there with a fatherly smile on his face. "Good morning, Ryoken."

Ryoken sighs in frustration. He then gets out of bed and went inside the bathroom. It was a tiny bathroom with just a toilet and a sink and a dirty tub. He turns on the water of the dirty shower attached to the wall and takes a quick shower. Then after the quick shower, he quickly brushes his teeth in the dirty sink. Then he gets his mental hospital clothes on and walks out the door.

He goes to the cafeteria where all of the loonies are already eating their breakfast. Ryoken groans and he goes up, grabs the bowl, and goes up to Chef Opal.

"Oho! Good morning, newbie! Enjoy Chef Opal's famous mushroom surprise!" She pours the mushroom surprise in Ryoken's bowl and some of it got on Ryoken's face.

Ryoken gags a bit at the sight of this so-called food. He looks around to find an empty table, but seeing that some of the tables are full of loonies.

"Hey kid." Ryoken looks and sees Hirabayashi waving at him. He also sees Chika sitting next to Hirabayashi and is playing her gaming console.

Ryoken goes to the table where Hirabayashi and Chika are sitting and sat down. Hirabayashi looks at his 'breakfast.' "Chef Opal made mushroom surprise?" She asked.

"I'm not eating it," he told her, "if only I can sneak in there and make my own breakfast instead of having her make a bunch of gross and disgusting crap."

Ryoken notices the mushroom surprise twitching, which kind of made him freak out a bit.

"What's your usual meal before you came here?" She asked.

"Well, for breakfast, I have scrambled eggs and toast-"

"But you used to eat the pancakes with the smiley faces on them" His ghost father added.

_'_ _I'm not saying that.'_ He told his ghost father through his thoughts.

"For lunch, I just order a hot dog at Cafe Nagi. And for dinner, I have some pasta. It's my daily meal all the time."

"So basically you eat the same thing every breakfast, lunch, and dinner?"

"Um… Yes?"

"Don't you eat anything else than the same thing?"

"No."

"Then I guess you should try Chef Opal's veggie mush, meat smoothie, and mushroom surprise."

Ryoken made a confused face when Hirabayashi said that. "You're messing with me, right? Tell me you're just messing with me…"

Hirabayashi laughs for a bit, meaning she was joking about him trying out Chef Opal's 'food.'

Ryoken made an annoying face when Hirabayashi is laughing. Then he looks at Chika. She is still playing on her gaming console, so she didn't pay attention to what he and Hirabayashi were saying.

Then he looks around the cafeteria for a bit, then he notices Mizushima giving him a glare. Thinking that he might be a little friendly, Ryoken waves his hand a little to come sit with him, but Mizushima turns his head away and tchs at him.

_'_ _Geez… You don't have to give me attitude…'_ He thought to himself as he made an annoyed face again.

* * *

Soon after breakfast, the same nurse with a dead-pin face approaches to Ryoken and tells him to follow him to the doctor's office, in which he did.

When they arrive at the office, the dead-pin nurse leaves Ryoken alone, so he went inside and was greeted with the doctor. He is a middle-age man with glasses and has brown short hair, but with slight grey streaks appearing on the sides.

"Hello Kogami-san, my name is Doctor Kamiyama," he extended his hand towards Ryoken, "I will be examining your problem most of the time."

Ryoken reaches for the hand and shakes it for a bit. "Nice to meet you."

"Come have a seat."

Ryoken sat down on the chair and faces towards Kamiyama.

Kamiyama sat down at his desk and looks through Ryoken's files. "Ryoken Kogami. Age: 18. Birthdate: April 13th. Father is Kiyoshi Kogami, who died 7 years ago from a heart failure, which is the issue that brought you here. Mother is Anna Kogami, who died 18 years ago."

Ryoken looks down at the floor when Kamiyama mentioned his late mother. He barely knows her and his father never talks about her all the time. All he knows is that she died after he was born.

Kamiyama continues to read through Ryoken's files. "Your allergies are clammed shells and butternut. Your blood type is A positive. You are also an honor student through out your school years, until you were expelled on your 3rd and final year at Den City Academy."

Ryoken gets annoyed when Kamiyama mentioned him being expelled at school. "Why is that in my file?"

"Before her arrest, Dr. Taki sends in many files of you during your life as they have been updated."

Ryoken blinked in surprised when Kamiyama said that. He didn't know Dr. Taki is keeping records of him of all time. She really does care for him.

"Now the, let's get to business," he said, putting away Ryoken's files in the file cabinet, "so you claimed that you have been seeing your father as a ghost?"

Ryoken is getting tired of people saying that he claimed that he's seeing his ghost father, he really does see him, but he doesn't want to argue with the doctor, so he just nods in replied.

"Is he here now?"

Ryoken notices his ghost father appearing beside him. He gives his son a warming smile. Ryoken gives out nod to the doctor.

"Okay. I want to know what he does while he is here." Kamiyama puts his hand behind his back. "How many fingers am I holding?"

Ryoken knotted his eyebrows when the doctor is doing that. He's supposed to fix him, not make fun of him.

His ghost father looks behind Kamiyama's back and look at his hand. "I'm a man of science, not a man of mathematics." He said, very upset.

_'_ _Just do what he telling us to do.'_ He told his ghost father through his thoughts.

He sighs for a bit. "He is holding four in his hand."

Ryoken looks back at the doctor. "Four."

Kamiyama pulls his hand from his back and began writing down on his notepad. "Alright. Time for the next test."

Ryoken groans for a bit. This is going to be a while for him…

* * *

After taking a few tests with Kamiyama and being told they will do this tomorrow, Ryoken returns to the rec room and rests for a bit. Then sooner or later, he is playing on Chika's gaming console for a bit, as requested by Chika to play with him, according to Hirabayashi.

Ryoken is kind of struggling on playing this game. Okay, a lot! He is not a gamer like Chika is. He is a hacker and a duelist. And also a cyber terrorist in Link VRAINS. Gamer. Not so much.

Soon, the character he was controlling dies and he gets a game over. Ryoken hands the gaming console back to Chika. "Sorry about that," he apologizes to the girl, "you're probably be good at this than I am. Gaming is just not my thing."

Chika nods, understanding what he is saying and takes her gaming console from him and starts playing the game Ryoken just lost.

Ryoken thought of what Hirabayashi told him yesterday about Chika's mental illness, or to everyone in the mental hospital who thinks Chika has a mental illness, but he knows it's not a mental illness.

Once Chika has won the game, Ryoken faces her. "Hey, Chika?" The girl turns around and faces the 18 year old. "Hirabayashi told me that your father send you to the mental illness because you were behaving weird and he thought it was some kind of mental illness, right?"

Chika didn't say anything when he asked her that question. She just stares at him. Ryoken is going to assume that she is listening.

"Well, I don't think you have a mental illness," he said with a serious face on him, "have you heard of the autism spectrum?"

Chika shakes her head as her answer of what he asked.

"It's this disorder that happens very often to kids at a very young age," he explained to her, "most people who have autism don't usually speak a lot, but that's only because they have disabled autism, but you refuse to talk because of what happened to your mother 5 years ago, and there are some people who are very smart and understand things a little, but they only have a higher functioning autism, so I'm assuming you have that kind of autism."

Chika keeps on staring at Ryoken, but she is still listening to what he is saying, he hoped…

"I may not have autism myself, but I have seen a lot of people with it most of my time, like when they spin around, rocking back and forth, making some weird noises, and stacking some stuff in a tower. The point is, autism is not a mental illness, it's just a mental disorder, so it's okay to have autism and people with autism shouldn't be allowed to go to a mental hospital. If this is your father's way of helping you with your autism, then he is a total asshole. Do you… understand what I just said?"

Chika looks at the ground for a moment. Ryoken worries that she didn't get everything he had just said. Then she looks back up to Ryoken and nods her head in response, which surprises Ryoken, but he smiles for a bit. "That's good." He then ruffles Chika's hat, then Chika went to play a new game on her gaming console.

Ryoken goes into deep thoughts. If Chika has been in this mental hospital for 5 years, then the doctors should of analyze Chika already and know that autism isn't a mental illness and she should been out of here right now, but somehow, she is still here. Why wasn't she leaving this messed up place where she doesn't have to be with this nut-cases?

Just then, the door to the mental hospital opened and in came Mizushima, who is looking upset, and the same dead-pin nurse who took Ryoken to see Kamiyama. "Mizushima, you need to start working on your drinking problems. Stealing the doctors wine from the conference room is not helping you deal with it." She told him.

"Pff. Whatever…" He said with an attitude as he goes to to sit down at the table and puts his feet on the table. The nurse just rolls her eyes and leaves the room. Then Mizushima gives Ryoken a glare.

Ryoken knotted his eyebrows when Mizushima is doing that. _'Why are you glaring at me like that? I haven't even done anything to you!'_ He thought to himself, as if he is talking with this man.

Then his ghost father appeared to him. "Were you talking to me, son? About what happened 10 years ago? Because if you were, you did send your own father to rot in jail."

Ryoken looks down at the floor when he mentioned that. _'No… I was talking about Mizushima…'_ He communicate his ghost father through his thoughts.

His ghost father looks at Mizushima for a moment. He was indeed glaring at his son. "I see. Did you do something to make him upset?"

_'_ _No! I haven't even talk to the guy at all when I first came to this nut job place! I don't know what the hell his problem is, but he can't just hate me for no reason at all!'_

"Hmm… I see. I suggest you duel him so he won't bother you anymore."

_'_ _Link VRAINS is closed! I have to hack into SOL Technologies to do that and I really don't feel like dueling right now! And besides, Mizushima doesn't have a duel disk on him, and I don't think he has one in his room, so clearly, he is not a duelist.'_

"I see. Then I have nothing else to give you to handle him."

_'_ _I hope you're not planning on killing him. Because in every horror movie, there are evil ghosts who killed people of the person who only sees the ghost, and I rather go to jail to kill the Ignis, not for murder.'_

"Don't be silly, son. I won't hurt the young man. That is wrong."

Ryoken sighs a bit and his ghost father vanishes back into his head. Honestly, Ryoken really doesn't understand what Mizushima's problem is, but he knows that he can't just be rude to him every time he sees him.

"Oh Yuki-senpai!" Ryoken heard Tomo's voice, turns his head, and sees her going up to Mizushima.

"What is it, Ohno?" He asked in a very rude tone.

"I was just wanted to make sure my future husband is doing fine after his visit with Dr. Kamiyama." She gives Mizushima a very lovey dovey smile.

Mizushima gives out an annoying groan when she said that. "I wouldn't marry you if you were the last woman on Earth."

Tomo giggles when he said that. "Oh, Yuki-senpai, you are so funny with your jokes!"

"I wasn't joking."

"Sure you were, you sly dog!" And with that she pokes her nose and skips away from him, and Mizushima just rolls his eyes in annoyance.

Ryoken then sees Tanaka and Osamu walking towards Mizushima, which is not a good sign.

"Aww! Is your girlfriend checking up on you after your little visit to Dr. Kamiyama?" Tanaka did a little baby talk towards Mizushima, which made him annoyed by it.

"Ohno is not my girlfriend. Just an annoyance in my back." He told the 21 year old.

"That's not what I heard," he said with a grin, "if you two get out of the mental hospital, do you think you can go to the movie, then propose to her at the beach, get marry up on the hill, and have 10 babies together?"

"Shut up…"

"Do you think you can invite me to your wedding when I get out of this dump?"

Mizushima is getting pissed off. "Shut up."

"Mizushima and Ohno sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Tanaka sings about Mizushima and Tomo's "relationship."

Osamu laughs when Tanaka is doing that. "Good one, Tanaka-sama!"

Mizushima gets up and faces Tanaka. "SHUT UP! I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU MESS WITH ME!"

"Ooooh! I'm so scared!" Tanaka said, pretending he is afraid of Mizushima, which he isn't.

Ryoken can't stand Tanaka mocking Mizushima like that. He knows Mizushima is being rude to him, but he can't let him be tortured by Tanaka like that.

So, Ryoken gets up from the couch and goes up to the boys. "Hey!" They all turn to face the 18 year old boy, then everyone in the mental hospital look at Ryoken when he shouted. "Leave Mizushima alone."

All of the patients are mutter and whisper on why Ryoken is defending Mizushima like that and how Mizushima behaves.

Tanaka snorts at Ryoken. "Seriously? You're defending Mizushima? You don't even know him that well! You're just a noob!"

Ryoken looks down at the floor, "I know that. I know Mizushima is being rude to me even after I got here," he said, then he remembers of the children's screams during the Lost Incident and how they are being tortured for 6 months. Seeing Mizushima being mock by Tanaka made him bring back the moment of all of 6 victims being tortured, so he couldn't handle it, "but I know that I couldn't see him being mocked by your words and having him pissed off! So you better knock it off right now!"

Tanaka crosses his arms and looks directly towards Ryoken. "Or what? You're going to duel me?"

Ryoken didn't say anything when Tanaka said that.

"Oh wait. Link VRAINS is closed after some freak incident a couple of days ago, right? So there's no way we could duel in VRAINS. Unless you are considering dueling here. Is that it?"

Silence is still inside Ryoken.

"I don't think Kamiyama is going to like it when we duel in the mental hospital. It will be a total mess and we be in big trouble. So, if don't mind, noob, I'm going to continue harassing Mizushima."

Ryoken isn't going to let Tanaka mock Mizushima again like that. He needs to do something.

So, Ryoken jumps onto Tanaka and grabs hold of his neck.

"What the heck?!" Tanaka was surprised by Ryoken's sudden move.

Mizushima and Osamu's eyes widen as Ryoken attacks Tanaka like that.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! NEW BOY AND TANAKA ARE HAVING A FIGHT!" Everybody is shouting of how they assume that Ryoken and Tanaka are fighting, which is actually Ryoken trying to struggle Tanaka by the neck.

Hirabayashi, Chika, and Tomo watched this whole event with wide-eyes.

"Stupid! Stop! What do you think you're doing?!"

Ryoken didn't answer Tanaka's panic question. He just continues to struggle and holding onto Tanaka as hard as possible.

"Please stop! I'm about to lose air!" He said desperately.

All of the patients keep on chanting "Fight! Fight!" the whole time and they are making bets on who should win the fight, when suddenly…

"What's going on here?!"

Everybody turned around and sees Kamiyama standing there with his hand on his hip. Soon, they all scattered to their rooms, except for Ryoken and Tanaka.

Kamiyama sees Ryoken on Tanaka, and Tanaka looks like he's about to lose consciousness. "Kogami-san! Get off of Tanaka! He can't breath."

Ryoken did as Kamiyama said, he gets off of Tanaka. Then Tanaka takes a deep breath when Ryoken lets him go and he falls to his knees. "Oh fresh air! Sweet, sweet air!" Tanaka heard a throat clearing sound. He looked up and sees Kamiyama looking at him directly. A sweat drop appears on Tanaka's head. "Uh… What's up, doc?"

Kamiyama is very upset as he keeps on looking at the two boys. "Kogami-san. Tanaka. My office. Now." He then leaves the room, leaving Ryoken and Tanaka standing there dumbfounded.

_'_ _Since when did this asylum become a high school all of the sudden?'_ Ryoken thought to himself.

* * *

Ryoken and Tanaka are now sitting in Kamiyama's office looking at the doctor, who is now giving a disappointed look toward the boys.

"Can the two of you explain why you two were fighting all of the sudden?" He asked either one of them to talk.

"Well, me and Osamu were just minding our own business and having a very nice chat with Mizushima, when all of the sudden, the new guy started harassing us and attacked me!" Tanaka explained to the doctor.

Ryoken's eyes widen when Tanaka said that. He's obviously lying. "Nani?! You're the one who was bothering Mizushima! I was just trying to defend him!"

"I almost gone to the light where my dead grandma is at because you almost killed me!" Tanaka shouted at Ryoken.

"I wasn't trying to kill you, I was trying to stop you is all! I'm not a murderer, you know!"

"Yes you are! You almost killed me with your strong muscle of yours!"

"I'm not that strong!"

"ENOUGH!" Ryoken and Tanaka got frighten by Kamiyama's loud tone. "I don't know who started what, but I do know that the mental hospital is a place where you are going to be cured from your mental illness, not a place for rough housing. Do you two understand?"

"Yes doctor…" They both said at the same time.

"Good." Kamiyama lets out a tiring sigh. "Look, a nurse in the hospital is holding some medicine that I need for a patient. Can you two of you go get it and not kill each other?"

Ryoken and Tanaka glared at each other for a moment, then they turn their heads away from each other and they nod in agreement.

"Good. Now off you two go." And with that, the boys leave Kamiyama's office.

* * *

Ryoken and Tanaka walk through the halls of the hospital to go to a nurse with the medicine Kamiyama wants.

Ryoken can hear the sounds of the heart monitors echoing through the halls. They remind him of how his father got inflicted by the virus, and then ended up dying to save him, and now he is a ghost inside Ryoken's mind.

"I'm kind of surprised that mental hospital patients can just get out of that room and walk around the hospital." Ryoken spoke after a whole long silence of not talking to each other.

"Of course we roam around the hospital out of the room," Tanaka explained, "but that just for the daytime. At night, they lock the doors of the mental hospital room so we wouldn't allow to go anywhere."

Ryoken puts his hand on his chin in a thinking position when Tanaka explained it. "Maybe when I'm here, I can find the exit to the hospital and just leave without even trying to be cured and go back to how my life was."

"BZZZT! Sorry, newbie, but Mizushima already tried that method when he went out for a walk around the halls, and he ended up being tasered by one of the security guards of the hospital. It was hilarious!" Tanaka explained and then laughs about it.

Ryoken sighs as he lets his hand down from his chin. "Then that scraps out that idea…"

After a long walk through the halls, they reached the lounge of the hospital where a lot of sick or hurt patients and people visiting them are in.

Ryoken tried his best to keep his childhood guilt down when he sees the hospital patient, because he know that it is the same hospital where the Lost Incident victims where at after they were rescued because of him.

"Hey, noob." Ryoken turns around and looks at Tanaka with an annoyed face. "You might get upset about this, but there are some men here who are expecting me to play poker, and I never back away from a good poker game."

Ryoken raises his eyebrow in confusion. "What are you saying?" He asked.

"I'm saying, you go get Kamiyama's medicine, while I… go play poker. See ya!" And with that, Tanaka dashes off, leaving Ryoken all alone.

Ryoken just stood there in shock and his mouth wide opened of what Tanaka just did. "You're supposed to be taking care of your gambling problem, not make it worse!" He shouted at, but Tanaka couldn't hear it since he's far away from him.

Ryoken then sighs in defeat and rubs his forehead for a bit. Then he goes on to look for the nurse that has Kamiyama's medicine.

* * *

"Here's the medicine." The nurse said as she gives the medicine to Ryoken. "I hope Miss Ozano feels better with it."

Ryoken carefully holds the medicine in his hand and gives the bow to the nurse and leaves.

_'_ _I better go find that idiot and go back to the mental hospital.'_ Ryoken thought to himself and he goes looking for Tanaka.

Then Ryoken stops walking for a moment, turns his head, and looks at two girls in the lounge just talking, and Ryoken instantly knew the two of them.

The girl with the short bob brown hair and brown eyes wearing a white shirt with a light blue jacket over it and a yellow skirt and black ordinary ballerina shoes is Blue Maiden's real life self and Akira Zaizen's step-sister, Aoi Zaizen. And the other girl with dark red long hair and is wearing the Den City hospital gown, he knows her 10 years ago as the only female victim of the Lost Incident.

_'_ _So that's the girl Blue Maiden wanted to save from the Light Ignis, and the Water Ignis' origin. Miyu Sugisaki.'_ Ryoken thought to himself as he watches the two girls just talk and laugh for a bit.

Blue Maiden did say that she wanted to see Sugisaki again after the Ignis Warfare is over and that she wanted to save her from the Light Ignis. However, Blue Maiden didn't get the chance to do that since she was defeated by Bowman and was absorbed into him. Playmaker was the once who brought Sugisaki out of the coma the Light Ignis put in her and brought Blue Maiden back along with everyone else, including Ryoken himself. And now here they are, reunited, and being friends once again.

Ryoken thought he might talk with Sugisaki for a little bit before he goes to find Tanaka and head back to the mental hospital room and tell her that he was the one who saved her and the 5 others 10 years ago, but he won't say his name in front of Blue Maiden, because when he revealed his true identity to Soulburner, Blue Maiden and Ghost Girl also know his real identity as well, and she might have Sugisaki stay away from him. She's not wrong on that.

As soon as Ryoken goes up to the two girls, he stops all of the sudden and he made a shocked face as he sees another girl going up to them and he has seen this girl so many times ever since his ghost father came.

_'_ _Fu-Funakoshi-san?!'_

That's right. Kanata, the same Kanata Funakoshi who keeps bothering him sometimes and the same Kanata who is still being friendly towards Ryoken since childhood, is going over to Blue Maiden and Sugisaki and talking with them.

Ryoken panics and hides behind a pillar. He doesn't know why Kanata is at the hospital all of the sudden and how she freakin knows Blue Maiden and Sugisaki. But Ryoken does know if he goes up to the girls and Kanata sees him wearing the mental hospital outfit, then she'll probably think that he is crazy or has a mental illness and she might stay away from him, and he doesn't want that to happen.

"What are you doing?" Ryoken got startled and turns around and sees Tanaka giving him a weird look and he was holding 20 yen in his hand.

"Don't sneak up on me like that, you idiot!" Ryoken whispered very quietly.

"Why are you whispering all of the sudden?" Tanaka asked, even more confused than before.

"Go away! I'm trying to hide!" He told Tanaka quietly.

"Hide from who exactly?"

"This girl I know from childhood."

"Why?"

"Because… if she found out that I'm in a mental hospital with you nut-cases, then she probably won't speak to me again…"

"Hey! Who are you calling us nut-cases?!" Tanaka was offended when Ryoken said that.

"Whatever. Just go away and let me hide here until she is gone."

Tanaka turns and looks at the three girls for a moment. "So, which one is the childhood friend?"

Ryoken sighs when Tanaka asked that question. The one with the light purple hair with the light pink dress and light blue hoodie."

"Okay." Then Tanaka makes a grin that is so big, it might hurt his face. "I'm going to go talk to her."

Ryoken's eyes widen when he said that. "Wait, what?!" And the Tanaka goes up to where Kanata, Blue Maiden, and Sugisaki are at. "Tanaka!"

Tanaka ignores Ryoken calling to him and goes up to the girls. "Hello, ladies!" The three girls turn to look at Tanaka.

_'_ _This isn't happening…'_ Ryoken thought to himself as he puts his hands in his face, knowing this idiot is going to tell Kanata about him being in the mental hospital. Probably payback for trying to kill him.

* * *

"Uh… Hi there." Kanata said weirdly when some guy went up to her and her two new friends all of the sudden.

"Sorry that I showed up here all of the sudden. My name is Katsu Tanaka and I am the King of all Casinos!" The strange man poses like some kind of superhero that Kanata read in a comic book before.

"Oh. It's nice to meet you. I'm Kanata Funakoshi, but if you like, you can call me Kanashi." She said with a smile on her face.

"Kanata Funakoshi. That's a very lovely name you got there."

"Teehee. Thank you very much, Katsuka."

He made a confusing face of what she just called him. "Katsuka?"

"It's a combination of your first name and last name. I have a habit of giving people who I meet and become friends with nicknames of their first and last names." She explained to the older man.

Katsu made a disappointed face. "Well, I prefer if you call me The King of Casinos, but whatever. It's your choice."

Kanata's new friend, Aoi, made a weirded out face. "What's up with this guy all of the sudden? Why does he keep claiming himself as the 'King of Casinos?'"

"It's okay, Aoi-chan, he's only a mental hospital patient," Kanata's other new friend, Miyu, explained to Aoi, "I seen some of them walking around for a bit after I woke up and they're not that bad, unless their mental illness is serious."

Kanata made a surprise face when Miyu said that. "I didn't know this hospital had a mental side!"

"I just learned about it after I woke up."

Katsu raises his eyebrow for bit. "Hey, uh… red hair chick-"

Miyu looks at Katsu when he mentioned her. "It's Miyu. Miyu Sugisaki."

"Right. You mentioned that you woke up. Were you in a coma or something?"

Miyu looked down at the floor for a moment before answering. "Actually, yeah. I was. About 2 or 3 months ago, I saw a strange light coming out of the TV, and then all of the sudden, it went dark. When I came to, I was in the hospital. The doctor told me that I was in a coma for a really long time, so I'm staying here until they test me for a bit and then I'll be discharging pretty soon."

Katsu nods for bit piecing everything together. Eh. Sort of.

"I met Kanata-chan soon after I woke up and she told me that she was taking care of me while I was in a coma since the other doctors were busy with other patients."

"Yup yup!" Kanata said in a happy tone. "I felt so bad that Miki was in a coma and there are so many people here who are very sick or very injured, so I thought I might help them out for a bit and take care of Miki for a little while until she woke up!"

Katsu made that confusing face again of what she called Miyu. "Miki?"

"That's the combination for her first name and last name."

"I don't mind Kanata-chan calling me 'Miki', it's kind of cute." Miyu smiled.

"Oh."

"And soon later, I saw Aoi-chan paying a visit to me. It's been 10 years since I saw her after I lost my mom's ring and she lied to protect me. I've really missed her so much and seeing her once again made me very happy. So I enjoyed her having her visit me everyday."

Katsu knotted his eyebrows. "Just to clarify, this 'Aoi-chan' is…"

"Me." Aoi stands up and gives Katsu a glare. She already dislikes this guy.

"Right."

"I couldn't think of a nickname for Aoi Zaizen. It's kind of difficult. So I'm just going to stick with Aoi for a bit." Kanata sticks her tongue out in a cute way.

Katsu raises an eyebrow when Kanata said her full name. "Aoi Zaizen. Hey, you have the same last name as that dude in SOL Technologies. Akira Zaizen, was it?"

"Yeah. He's my brother. Well, step-brother, to be exact."

"So basically, you're famous."

"I'm not famous."

"Riiiight."

"I don't care if Aoi is the step-sister of Akira Zaizen of SOL Technologies, she's still my friend," Kanata explained, "and her and Miki's friendship kind of reminds me of my and Ryomi's friendship back when we were kids."

And once again, Katsu made that confusing face. "Ryomi?"

"That's the combination of the first and last name of Ryoken Kogami."

The name catch Katsu's attention. _'Hm.. Interesting. Very very interesting.'_ He thought to himself.

Katsu isn't the only one who caught the name in attention, Aoi did too. "Wait. Did you say Ryoken Kogami?"

Kanata turned to face Aoi. "Yeah. Why? Did you meet him?"

Aoi stayed quiet for a moment before answering. "Just on the internet."

"Oh. Okay."

Kanata then notices the look on Katsu's face. "What's wrong Katsuka?"

"Oh nothing. Just thinking about Ryoken Kogami."

"Oh. Do you know him too?"

"Nope." _'Yup'_

Kanata stares at Katsu for a moment. "Okay."

"Anyway, forget about him. I want to know about you." Katsu said with a grin.

"Huh?" Kanata is confused.

"I wanna know why you're in the hospital all of the sudden."

Kanata looks down at the floor and gives out a sad smile. "Well… It's pretty much a long story, but I'll tell you anyway…"

And Kanata begins to explain to Katsu why she is at the hospital.

* * *

Ryoken doesn't know what they are saying, but he knows that it won't be good. Tanaka is going to be telling Kanata that he is in the mental hospital and she'll get angry at him and she'll never see him again. He really doesn't want that to happen.

"My dear son, you can't just hide there forever. Try to talk with Kanata for a bit." His ghost father told him as he appeared in front of him.

_'_ _No. I'm staying right here until she leaves.'_ He told his ghost father through his thoughts.

"I'm sure she'll be happy to see you and understand your situation."

_'_ _That I'm seeing my dead father's ghost? That will only make things worse…'_

His ghost father sighs in defeat. "Very well then." And then he disappears back to Ryoken's mind.

After what seem like an hour, Tanaka came back up to Ryoken. He then gives the man a glare. "I hope you didn't tell her that I was in the mental hospital. Cause if you did, I won't forgive you."

"Relax, newbie, I didn't mention you at all," he told the 18 year old, "she's actually the one who mentioned you. And I actually got to know you a little better, Ryomi."

Great. She mentioned his old childhood nickname towards this idiot. Ryoken is not happy about it. "Don't call me that." He doesn't want anyone to call him by that stupid nickname. Well, anyone, except for Kanata that is.

"Sorry. I'm going to get used to it for a while. And it made me forget about Mizushima being lovey dovey over Ohno." Tanaka grinned, which Ryoken didn't like.

"I hate you so much…" Ryoken said in a disappointed tone. "By the way, is she gone? Funakoshi-san, I mean?"

"She went home for a bit. She's a very nice and cheery person. No wonder you have the digs for her."

"It's not like that."

"Geez, Ryomi. You're starting to act like Mizushima right now."

Ryoken tiredly sighs. He doesn't want to argue right now. He needs to know why Kanata was at the hospital. "Tanaka. Since you talked to her, did you figure out why Funakoshi-san was at the hospital today."

"Oh that. She was only talking with Akira Zaizen's sister and Coma Girl for a bit," Tanaka explained, Ryoken knows that "Akira Zaizen's sister" is Blue Maiden and "Coma Girl" is Miyu Sugisaki he is referring to, "and then I think she also said that she was… visiting a friend who has cancer or something."

Ryoken is silent for a moment. So that's it. Kanata is just visiting a friend who has cancer. Probably from her high school. That's really sweet of her. And also, it's good that Kanata made friends with Blue Maiden and Sugisaki. Maybe she might bother them instead of him all the time.

"Good. That's all I want to hear."

"Hey, I said I think she was visiting her cancer friend. I wasn't really paying attention." Tanaka said.

"I don't care what you think. I just want to know why Funakoshi-san was here and now I know. Come on. Let's take the medicine to Kamiyama so I can stay away from you as possible." And with that Ryoken walks back to the mental hospital room.

Tanaka got confused for a moment, but he shrugs it off and follow him back to the mental hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes chapter 7 of Father Thy Blood. Looks like Ryoken just made a new rival in the mental hospital, and they don't even have to duel this time. Well, basically Link VRAINS is closed. I also added Aoi and Miyu in there since the show didn't show Aoi visiting Miyu at the hospital at all, so kudos on that. Also, I can't wait for Miyu to appear in episode 110 of VRAINS! And Ryoken is kind of scared of Kanata might finding out that he is in the mental hospital just because of him seeing Dr. Kogami's ghost. Why would that be? I already know the answer, but I'm not going to tell you guys. You'll all have to figure that out yourselves. Anyway, let me know what you guys think about it and I will see you soon!


	9. Turn 110: A Second Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken is kind of surprised that Mizushima wanted him to talk to him, but he never thought he would be friends with the guy too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Chapter 8 of Father Thy Blood is now out! Recap: Ryoken is beginning his new life at the mental hospital, but he is very bothered that Mizushima hating him for no reason at all. Then Ryoken explains to Chika that she has autism and that she doesn't have a mental illness, but a mental disorder and that people with autism shouldn't be at a mental hospital. Then he sees Tanaka and Osamu making fun of Mizushima after Tomo goes all lovey dovey on him and he is pissed off by it. Ryoken confronts Tanaka by jumping onto him and holding on his neck, kind of choking him. Then Doctor Kamiyama comes in and sees Ryoken and Tanaka fighting, so he stops them and tells them never do that again and then sends them to get a medicine for a patient. When the boys go through the hospital to look for the medicine, Tanaka ditches Ryoken to play poker with some men, even though Tanaka is trying to handle his gambling problem. Then Ryoken sees Aoi and her childhood friend, Miyu Sugisaki, talking as Miyu is totally fine. Then Ryoken also sees Kanata being friends with them which surprises Ryoken and he hides from her from knowing that he is in a mental hospital. Then Tanaka, who has just won the poker game, goes up to talk to the girls and he learns all about them a bit, then Kanata tells Tanaka why she is at the hospital, but we won't learn why she is there until later. Tanaka tells Ryoken that Kanata is visiting a friend who has cancer, or at least that's what Tanaka thinks since he barely pays attention, but Ryoken stops him and he doesn't want to hear anything and goes back to the mental hospital. Now onward to the story!

It's been two days after Ryoken and Tanaka's little 'fight' and things has gotten a little awkward after that. Mizushima isn't glaring at Ryoken anymore. He just gives him a glance and doesn't tchs at him anymore or is angry at him, and it kind of makes Ryoken confused a bit. Okay. A lot.

Not only that things between him and Mizushima are awkward, but things between him and Tanaka are pretty tense after that fight and Tanaka has been picking on him all the time and it annoys him a lot. Ryoken is not a little kid anymore. Tanaka's not a kid either, but he sure acts like one.

All of the other patients keep bugging him a lot and try to tell him all about their mental illness and that makes Ryoken nervous and he sometimes hides in his room.

The only people who he trust the most are Hirabayashi and Chika. Well, technically, Chika doesn't have a mental illness, but a mental disorder, and Hirabayashi isn't all crazy or insane like the others, so he trusts her.

The sooner he gets cured and his ghost father is out of his head, the sooner things will be back to normal and away from this mental hospital.

* * *

A little while later, Ryoken sees Spectre coming into the mental hospital. He must be visiting him today.

Spectre goes up to the couch where Ryoken is sitting on and sat down with him. "Hello, Ryoken-sama. How are you handling at the mental hospital?"

"Awful." Ryoken told his friend in a upset tone. "The patients here are either annoying or rude, the food here is crap, and I already made a new enemy here, and I didn't even terrorize him in Link VRAINS."

"That is awful, indeed." Spectre said, feeling bad for Ryoken. "Who is the person that is harassing you?"

Ryoken points at Tanaka, who is playing cards with some mental patients.

Spectre examines Tanaka for a bit. "This guy is harassing you? He seems a bit dumb to harass you, Ryoken-sama."

"He is dumb, but he can bully me all the time, with throwing gross foods at my face and bugging me all the time. I feel like I'm in elementary school again."

"Just try to ignore him for a while, Ryoken-sama, and maybe he'll stop harassing you."

"I doubt that." Ryoken gives out a tired sigh and he glares at Tanaka. "I almost strangled him to death two days ago. If I try to strangle him again, will I go to prison for murder?"

"I don't think murdering someone will help you with your problem, Ryoken-sama."

"Mmm… Maybe you're right, Spectre."

Spectre takes one more glance at Tanaka. "He seems familiar. What is this man name?"

"Katsu Tanaka. Why do you ask?"

"Ah. Now I remember. He is the son of Kagami Tanaka." Spectre said with a smirk on his face.

"Who?"

"She is a famous model in Japanese, and all of the world to be in fact. Surprised to see her own son in a mental hospital for… what is he in here for?"

"Gambling problems."

"Oh. I see. That makes some sense since his own mother is modeling around the world and his own father is nowhere to be found."

"How is it that I never heard of her or that his own mother is a model?" He asked.

"Well, you said that Katsu Tanaka is a bit dumb, right?" Ryoken gives a nod to Spectre. "Well, he takes his stupidity from his mother sometimes. Always forgetting her own name and coming up with a new one."

"That… makes a lot of sense."

"Hey!" Ryoken and Spectre turned their heads towards Tanaka, who is giving them a annoying look. "Why are you two dorks talking about my mommy's short term memory loss all of the sudden when you two could at least do some man on man action."

Ryoken raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about? Spectre has been my friend since we were kids. And also, I'm not gay."

Tanaka tilts his head a bit, looking at Ryoken up and down. "Are you sure? Cause you look gay to me."

"What makes you say that I look gay, you idiot?"

"I would say the slightly long hair makes you look gay. All the guys with long hair are gay."

Ryoken gives an annoying look towards Tanaka. "Mizushima has long hair as well, and so do you. Are you also considering yourself as gay too?"

"No! I'm interested in woman, thank you very much! Also, Mizushima has Ohno by his side, so he's not gay either! So the only person here who is gay is you!"

Ryoken rubs his temples in annoyance before he turns back to Spectre. "You see what I have to go through?"

"Yes. He seems rather difficult to handle. But I'm sure you can handle something like Tanaka, Ryoken-sama."

That is true. Ryoken can handle anything that troubles him. He's already handling his ghost father by going through this nut job place, he can handle an idiot like Tanaka.

"By the way, you also said that there is another man bugging you as well." Spectre said, curious.

"Yes. His name is… Nobuyuki Mizushima, I think…" Ryoken said, barely remembering what his name was.

"And which one is he?"

Ryoken points at Mizushima, who is sitting at the table with his feet on the table and his arms over his head, looking at the ceiling as if he is thinking about something.

Mizushima turns his head and looks at Ryoken. Ryoken acts quickly and turns his head away so he won't be eyeing at Mizushima and he wouldn't scoff at him or glare at him with such hate. Ryoken eyes on Mizushima for a bit and he sees that Mizushima isn't glaring at him, but is back to looking up at the ceiling.

"You said that Mizushima was bugging you after you got here, right?" Ryoken nod his head. "He doesn't seem to be bugging you right now."

"I know. He's been like this after that so-called fight with Tanaka that everybody claims to be two days ago," he told Spectre before knotting his eyebrows in a distress way, "it's kind of creeping me out."

"I'm sure he's just thinking about becoming friends with you, Ryoken-sama. You did say that you defended him from Tanaka, right?"

"Mizushima? Becoming friends with me? Ridiculous." Ryoken scoffs when Spectre said that.

"It might not be as ridiculous as you think, Ryoken-sama," Spectre said with a smile, "he might feel bad for treating you like crap and wants to be your friend, but is finding the right time to do it."

"Yeah. I'll believe it when I see it or when pigs fly." Honestly, what is Spectre thinking? Mizushima becoming friends with Ryoken. Ridiculous! Mizushima would just reject Ryoken by a second and Ryoken would probably do the same thing too.

Then the same nurse with the bored dead-pin faces goes up to the boys and looks at Spectre. "Okay, visiting time is over. Now get out."

Spectre gets up from the couch and looks at Ryoken with a friendly smile. "It was good to see you again, Ryoken-sama. And I hope you get well very soon." And with that, Spectre leaves the mental hospital.

Ryoken gives out a tired sigh and he lays down on the couch. Then he eyes on Mizushima for a bit. _'Mmm… Maybe Spectre might have a point on Mizushima. Maybe he might become my friend. I know I'm okay with Hirabayashi-san and Chika, but I think maybe Mizushima might want to become friends with me.'_ Ryoken thought to himself, but for a few seconds, he sighed. _'Oh, who the hell am I kidding? There's no way Mizushima would want to be friends with me.'_

* * *

It is now nighttime and Ryoken is asleep, or at least he was asleep if it wasn't for the knocking on his door.

He groans in a tired way and gets out of his bed. _'Who on Earth could be knocking on my door this late at night?'_ He thought to himself as he walks to the door.

He opens the door and is surprised to see someone who thought would never ever thought of coming to see Ryoken.

Nobuyuki Mizushima.

"Hey there, Kogami-kun…" Mizushima said, looking a bit nervous.

Ryoken stayed silent for a moment at the sight of Mizushima before he finally said something. "M-Mi-Mizushima? Wh-what are you doing here?" He asked still in shock.

"What? Can a guy just come to visit the new guy this one time?"

"Uh…" Ryoken doesn't know what to say anymore.

"Nevermind. Come on. I want to talk to you. In private."

Ryoken got confused and deep inside, a little scared when he said that, so he follows Mizushima to the lounge room.

They go to the window and Mizushima opens it, which made Ryoken shock even more. "H-hold on!" Ryoken shouted quietly, being careful not to wake anyone. "We can't just escape the mental hospital already! We'll get in trouble and I do not want to get in trouble again."

"Relax, newbie," Mizushima told him, "we're not leaving this place without being cured from our mental illness. I've learn that lesson already. We're going to my secret place for a little talk is all."

_'_ _I'm kind of afraid of what the talk might be about.'_ Ryoken thought to himself, looking pretty worried.

The two mental patients go out through the window and they walked around the building. They go to some unfolded cardboard box leaning against a wall, in which Mizushima moves to the side, revealing a hole and he enters inside.

Ryoken is hesitant at the moment. He doesn't know what Mizushima is going to do with him at this "talk." He might try to beat him up for always eyeing on him or he might yell at him to stay away from him. Or even worse, he might-

"Hey! Kogami-kun!" Ryoken got startled when Mizushima called him out. "Are you going to come inside or what?"

Ryoken swallows the fears of Mizushima trying to do something to him (and some of his saliva) down and goes inside the hole.

Inside a hole were some chairs, a coffee table, and a mini fridge. Ryoken thought it looks kind of decent, for a guy like Mizushima.

"Take a seat." Mizushima told the 18 year old. And Ryoken did as he is told.

Ryoken sees Mizushima going to the mini fridge and opening it, then pulls out two water bottles. He throws one to Ryoken, who catches it with reflexes.

Mizushima sits down and looks at Ryoken. "Now that were alone, here are some things I want to say," he said, and Ryoken tries to swallow all of the fears, but his mouth feels dry, "I just wanted to say-"

Ryoken clenches his eyes tight. _'Please don't hurt me! Or yell at me! Or, or or-"_

"thanks for defending me in front of Tanaka back then."

…

_'_ _Wait… What?'_

Did Ryoken hear that right? Nobuyuki Mizushima? The one Ryoken thought he might be harassing him when he first got and and who he thought hated him, is thanking him?

"I've always been picked on by Tanaka since I first arrive at this dump. Always making fun of me for thinking I was in a relationship with Ohno, which I am not. And always laughs at me whenever I get drunk after smuggling some alcohol from the conference room, and nobody ever defends me," he told Ryoken, "but when you suddenly stood up Tanaka just for me, I thought you would just ignore me like everyone else did, but you kind of just suddenly defend me like that. So thanks." Mizushima gives a smile to Ryoken, which surprised him a little.

"Um… Your welcome?"

And no sooner or later, none of them spoke another word. Then Ryoken opens the cap of the water bottle and drinks it.

"I've been noticing that you're kind of afraid of me." Mizushima broke the silence.

Ryoken stop drinking his water for a moment and looks at Mizushima. "Huh?"

"You keep looking away from me whenever I sometimes look at you, so it's obvious that you're scared of me." He said.

Ryoken looked very annoyed when Mizushima said that. "I'm not afraid of anything. He told him. Ryoken has never been afraid of anything, not even an Ignis. … Well, he has one fear, but he doesn't want to talk about it.

"So why do you always avoid me?" He asked.

"Well, you always glare at me when I first got here, so I just thought you hated me."

Mizushima looks down at the ground for a moment and Ryoken notices some sadness in his eyes. "I'm always in a bad mood because… well, my mom force me to come here to get cure for my drinking problem."

Ryoken knotted his eyebrows in sadness when Mizushima said that. "Can you tell me about what happened with your drinking problem?" He knows that he shouldn't ask him that, but he didn't have much of a choice.

Mizushima was silent for a moment, but he looks at Ryoken. "If you want to know, then I'll tell you."

Ryoken's eyes widen in surprise when Mizushima said that. He never expected that to happen.

"My old man always goes to the bar all the time when I was young and my mom always yells at him to stop drinking so much, and the old man just tells her to shut up," he explained to Ryoken with a sad and also an angry expression, "soon when I was around 9 years old, they got a divorce and my mom got custody of me, but I sometimes go visit my old man during the weekends, which I really hate the most. He gets so really drunk that he always beats the crap out of me. Day and night. Night and day. And that's when I had enough of it and told my mom about it. She got pissed off at my old man and call the cops on him and arrested him for good."

_'_ _What's with people calling the police on either ex-lover or a drunk-headed father and getting arrested? That just keeps reminding me of how I call the police on my father 10 years ago…'_ Ryoken thought to himself, remembering what his father did 10 years ago, but he keeps on listening to Mizushima's story.

"After that experience, my mom filed a restraining order on my old man to stay away from me, and I develop depression because of that experience. When I was 16 years old, I got invited to a high school classmate's party and I saw some beer cans, and… well, I just started to drink them. A lot. Everyday. I was starting to become like my old man. The apple doesn't fall hard from the tree. My mom got concern about me, and sign me up for the mental hospital. I got angry at her for doing that and I accidentally hit her. She got so scared and I was very shocked that I did that. So I have no choice but to go to this crap hole. I didn't like it here and nobody felt bad for me, so I tried escaping, but the security guards spotted me and they tasered me for it. So I'm stuck here until my drinking problems are done for good."

Wow. Ryoken never thought he feel bad for someone like Mizushima after hearing his story. "I'm sorry…" He said in a sad tone.

"Why are you being sorry for?" Mizushima asked. "You didn't get beaten to the crap by your old man."

"I know. I just feel sorry about what happened to you… That's all."

Mizushima smiles a bit when Ryoken said that. "Thanks. Nobody ever feels sorry about me before, so this is a first. I always thought everyone in this mental hospital are douchebags, but you're not like that. I like that."

Ryoken blushes a bit when Mizushima said that. "Um… Thanks, Mizushima-"

"Call me Nobuyuki. It's better this way."

Ryoken smiles at Mizushima, no, Nobuyuki. "Alright, Nobuyuki. So, are we good?"

"Yeah. We're all good here, Ryo-Ryo."

Ryoken got surprised by what Nobuyuki just called him. "Ryo-Ryo?"

"Well, Ryoken seems kind of old fashion, and Kogami is also pretty long too, so I thought I might call you Ryo-Ryo instead. Unless you don't like it, then-"

"No! I don't mind you calling me Ryo-Ryo," Ryoken told Nobuyuki, "I have an old friend from my childhood who still calls me Ryomi, so it's fine."

"Alright then. Then I guess we're friends now. So, let's shake on it." Nobuyuki holds out his hand towards Ryoken.

Ryoken smiles a bit and reaches his hand towards Nobuyuki and shakes it.

After that whole settlement, Ryoken and Nobuyuki leave the hole, go back inside the mental hospital and went back to their rooms.

* * *

When morning came, Ryoken and Nobuyuki walked into the kitchen to get breakfast and they see everyone in the kitchen is packed.

They go up to Chef Opal, who is serving the food (Obviously), and she is surprised to see Ryoken with Nobuyuki. "Hoh, hoh? What is this? New boy with mean drunk-head? This is very unexpecting."

"Well, you're going to get used to him being with me, Chef Opal." Ryoken told the chef.

Chef Opal shrugs for a bit and pours veggie mush into Ryoken's bowl, which some got onto Ryoken's face, and then Nobuyuki's bowl, and they walked to find a table.

Ryoken sees Hirabayashi and Chika at a table and goes over there and sat down. Ryoken motions Nobuyuki to come sit with them. Nobuyuki was kind of hesitant at first, but goes over there and sits next to Ryoken.

Hirabayashi was surprised when Nobuyuki is sitting next to Ryoken all of the sudden. "Mizushima? YOU'RE sitting with us? And next to the new guy?"

Nobuyuki looks away for a bit and looks pretty upset.

"It's okay, Hirabayashi-san, Nobuyuki is cool." Ryoken told her.

Hirabayashi blinked in confusion. "Now you're calling him by his given name? Who are you and what have you done with Kogami?"

Nobuyuki looks down at his veggie mush. "Maybe it was a bad idea…" Nobuyuki was about to get up from the table, but he felt Ryoken grab his wrist and Ryoken looks at Hirabayashi.

"Look, I know Nobuyuki is not a good person towards you and everyone else, no offense-"

"None taken."

"but I trust Nobuyuki. He can be a better person, even if he is in a bad mood sometimes. So, can you please just give Nobuyuki a chance?"

Hirabayashi thinks for a moment to decide, then she looks at Ryoken and gives him a grin. "You know, for a new guy like you, you do have a good heart."

Ryoken smiles at Hirabayashi. "Thank you, Hirabayashi." He looks at Chika. "What about you, Chika? Do you think you can give Nobuyuki a chance too?"

Chika stares at Ryoken for a moment. Ryoken hoped Chika payed attention to what he and Hirabayashi have discuss, then Chika nods her head, which Ryoken smiles.

Nobuyuki was shocked for a moment that Hirabayashi and Chika would give him a chance, then he smiles and sat back down at the table. He looks at Ryoken. "Thanks, Ryo-Ryo."

Ryoken smiles back at his new friend. "No problem."

* * *

Katsu watches the whole scene of Kogami sitting with Hirabayashi and Etsuko and then he sees Mizushima sitting next to Kogami, which shocks Katsu so much. "What the hell?! Nobuyuki Mizushima is sitting next to the new guy and suddenly is being nice to him, Hirabayashi and the weird brat?! How did this happen?!"

"Well, it might just be a coincidence of Kogami-kun and Mizushima-san hanging out, or they might of settle with their difference." Osamu said as he adjusts his glasses and Katsu gets annoyed when he was talking.

"Shut up, Ando!"

"Yes, Tanaka-sama."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's about it for chapter 8. And hey, this is the first chapter that Dr. Kogami's ghost doesn't appear this time. And Mizushima and Ryoken are now friends, and for now on, in Ryoken's POV, he will refer Mizushima as Nobuyuki. And Ryoken has gotten a new nickname. Ryo-Ryo. So, Kanata will call Ryoken "Ryomi" because it's his childhood nickname, and Mizushima will call Ryoken "Ryo-Ryo" and I have a feeling that in the future in later chapters of Father Thy Blood, when Yusaku will learn that Ryoken has his father's ghost in his head, Ai might begin to call Ryoken "Revolver-sensei" similar to season 3. Anyway, I'll see you guys later for chapter 9!


	10. Turn 111: Cancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken didn't understand why Kanata was wearing the Den City hospital clothes...until he learns her secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 people! It's finally here! Recap: Spectre has come to visit Ryoken to the mental hospital and they talked for a bit, mostly about Tanaka harassing him after their "fight" and Mizushima acting weird towards Ryoken than his usually, and then Tanaka thinks Ryoken is gay because of his hair. Spectre said his goodbyes to Ryoken after his visiting hours are over. Then later that night, Mizushima visits Ryoken all of the sudden and tells him that they need to talk in private and Ryoken fears that Mizushima might yell at him or hurt him or worst, but it was actually Mizushima thanking Ryoken for defending him from Tanaka. Mizushima tells Ryoken about his past and why he is in the mental hospital, so Ryoken felt sorry for him. Soon, Ryoken and Mizushima settled with their amends and became friends, much to everyone in the mental hospital's surprise. Now for this chapter, Ryoken will discover something that will shock and sadden him so much, and it has something to do with Kanata's "cancer friend." You'll all find out in this chapter right now. Enjoy!

At nighttime, Moriko goes inside an office and is greeted by Kamiyama. "Hey there, Kamiyama-san," she said with a smile on her face.

Kamiyama looked up from doing his paperwork with surprised eyes. "Moriko? You're not supposed to be in the doctor's office." He told her.

"I know, but I just wanted to pay a visit from my good friend and my favorite doctor is all." She sat down as she said that.

Kamiyama gives out a sigh of defeat and then smiles. "Alright. I won't report you for coming into my office."

Moriko gives Kamiyama a wink, then pulls out a cigarette and a lighter. "Hey, I thought I said there is no smoking in the hospital." Kamiyama said, upset.

"Come on, I won't get in trouble. Besides, you like me, don't you?"

Kamiyama gives out another sigh of defeat. "Fine. I'll let this one slide this time."

"You're a good man, Kamiyama." Moriko puts the cigarette in her mouth and lights the lighter on the cigarette and takes a puff of it. "So I noticed that our new kid became friends with Mizushima," she told the doctor.

"I know. I been keeping an eye on Mizushima lately. It's kind of surprising that he's even with Kogami-san and he was even smiling too. That's the first time I ever seen him smile." Kamiyama said.

"I think it was because of what the kid did towards Tanaka."

"You mean the fight?"

"I guess. Well, it wasn't much of a fight."

"Either way, I'm kind of surprised that Kogami-san would even defend Mizushima like that. He's stubborn and rude, but I'm surprised someone would do that."

Moriko nods in agreement. "I guess the kid has a good heart. He didn't want Mizushima to be picked on by Tanaka."

Kamiyama smiles for a bit. "I know Kogami-san is dealing with his mental illness, so is everyone else, including you, Moriko," Moriko slightly hits him a bit, but she knows he is supporting her, "but I think he is trying his best to help others. Maybe when he is cured, he might work here and help a lot of people with mental illness as well."

Moriko smiles at Kamiyama's comment. "That must be nice." After a few hours of the two talking and Moriko taking a puff from her cigarette, she gets up from the chair, opens the window, and throws the cigarette away. "Well, I'll be heading off to bed now. See you in the morning."

"You too."

"Oh. By the way, Kamiyama, thanks for letting me stay and handle my issue. I really appreciated." She said with a sad smile.

Kamiyama gives out a sympathetic smile to Moriko. "I know what he did to you was wrong, but you've been getting better for a long time now. Except the part where you're smoking in the hospital."

Moriko gives out a small laugh at Kamiyama's comment. "I'll try to quit. Promise." And with that Moriko leaves the office.

Kamiyama lets out a sigh and finishes the paper work before calling it quits for the night.

* * *

When morning came, everything is as usual. Eating Chef Opal's disgusting food and being treated by Kamiyama. After that it was noon and after eating another one of Chef Opal's disgusting foods, Ryoken, Nobuyuki, Tomo, Hirabayashi, Chika, and other mental patients sit in the lounge and Nobuyuki is trying to fix the TV by moving the antenna things on top of the TV.

"Come on, Mizushima! We need the TV box to be working so we can see the Battle City Tournament Part 3 live at Neo Domino City!" One of the patients said, waiting patiently.

"Hey, I'm not a handy man, you know," Nobuyuki told one of the patients, "those assholes should really call a cable guy to handle these things."

Nobuyuki moves the antenna things on the TV to see if the picture is coming on, but there is still static.

"Hey, Mizushima," Tanaka shouted over by the table and Nobuyuki looks at him, "maybe when you cured from your drinking problem, you can be the cable guy! That way you can drink again and get drunk while fixing TVs!"

"Hahaha! Good one, Tanaka-sama!" Osamu said while laughing.

"Not funny, Tanaka." Nobuyuki goes back to trying to fix the TV while trying to ignore Tanaka.

Honestly, Ryoken really doesn't watch dueling tournaments a lot. Well, he used to when he was a kid with Kanata, but not anymore because of him trying to find the Ignis and trying to kill them, but Nobuyuki insists on watching them.

Soon, the picture screen comes up and the live event of the Battle City Tournament Part 3 is on. "Hey, I fixed it!" Nobuyuki yelled.

"Hooray for Yuki-senpai!" Tomo cheered. "Come over here, sweetie and I'll give you a big kiss!"

"No thank you." Nobuyuki said with a disgusted look and walked over to the couch and sat down to watch the tournament.

Ryoken watch some amazing duelists duel for the Battle City Tournament Part 3, including the famous duelists, Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba. It wasn't all that bad. He did miss watching some duels on TV.

Just then, Kamiyama comes in and approaches the mental patients. "Everyone, I'm expecting a delivery from one of the pharmacists with a medicine that I need for a patient of mine," he explained to them, "would any of you go down to the lobby and go pick it up for me?"

"Not it!" Tanaka shouted and raised his hand as an answer.

"Oookaay… Anyone else besides Tanaka go pick it up for me?"

All of the patients are silent. It seems no one doesn't want to go down to the lobby to get the medicine. So Ryoken raises his hand for a bit. "I'll go get it."

Kamiyama smiled when Ryoken volunteered. "Thank you, Kogami-san."

"Aww… Come on, Ryo-Ryo, you're going to miss Muto dueling Kaiba in the finale." Nobuyuki said with an upset look.

"Don't worry, Nobuyuki, I'll come back very soon." He told his friend. And he leaves the mental hospital room to go pick up the medicine.

* * *

When Ryoken comes to the lobby, he sees a man holding a bag. It must the medicine that Kamiyama mentioned and that man must be the pharmacist. He goes up to him. "Hi, Doctor Kamiyama send me to get the medicine for him."

The pharmacist takes a good look at Ryoken for a moment. "The doctor is sending a mental hospital patient to pick up the medicine?"

"Um… Sure, I guess."

The pharmacist shrugs and gives the bag with the medicine in it to Ryoken and then leaves the hospital.

Ryoken looks at the bag with the medicine in it and smiles. He turns to go back to the mental hospital room, but stops as he sees something that made him froze.

He sees Kanata talking with Sugisaki for a bit, but… she was wearing the same hospital outfit that Sugisaki and the other hospital patients wear.

Why? Why is she wearing that? She's not sick… She didn't get into an accident… Why… is she wearing it?

Sugisaki and Kanata wave goodbye to each other and they headed towards opposite directions and Kanata is heading the same direction where Ryoken is standing and Ryoken didn't have any time to hide.

Kanata stops walking and sees Ryoken and she is surprised to see him wearing mental hospital clothes. "Ryomi?"

Ryoken snaps out of his frozen status and looks at Kanata. "Why are you wearing the Den City mental hospital clothes?" She asked, kind of curious and very confused, just as much as Ryoken is.

"I…" He wanted to say the same thing with Kanata wearing the Den City hospital outfit, but he couldn't. He is too shock that Kanata is even wearing it. He has so many questions he need to ask. "We need to have a private talk." He grabs Kanata's hand and takes her to somewhere private.

They go inside the closet. It's small, but at least it's private for him to have answers.

"Um… Ryomi, why are we in a closet?" She asked, even more confused.

"I'll be the one asking the questions." He told her with a serious look. "Why are you wearing the Den City hospital clothes anyway? You're not sick at all and you didn't get into some kind of accident. Or are you just wanting to try them on since you are so friendly towards all of the patients here?"

Kanata was silent when he asked him that question. She looks down at the floor for a moment and then she gives out a sad smile. "I guess the secret is out…"

Secret? What secret? She's been keeping a secret from him? For how long?

"You were always antsy about my secrets, so I'll just tell you." Kanata looks up and stares into Ryoken's eyes and still has that same sad smile on her face. "I have cancer."

Ryoken's eyes widen when Kanata said cancer. He didn't understand. Didn't her friend have cancer? Tanaka said so when he first met her, didn't he? "I… I thought…" He is being hesitant of his words. This is not like him. He was hesitant when he wanted to destroy the Light Ignis in their duel while Jin Kusanagi was there, but he couldn't, and now he is hesitant because he is so confused right now. "I thought it was your friend from school who has cancer. And don't say that cancer is contagious, cause it's not contagious."

Kanata is confused when Ryoken said friend and school. "I'm not in school. I've been in the hospital and staying at home since I got cancer. Also, I don't have any friends. Except for Aoi and Miki since they were very nice to me."

Ryoken's heart dropped when she said that and he feels it almost crack into a million pieces. This… this can't be happening… "Why?" He asked, his voice is cracked and he is pissed. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"

Kanata got startled when Ryoken started yelling at her.

"Why did you keep this a secret?! Why did you have cancer in the first place and then kept it a secret?!" With all of these questions rambling inside his head and his anger dropping down for a bit, Ryoken bit his lip and feels the tears forming in his eyes, but he refuses to let them fall. He didn't want to feel so weak. "Why… didn't you tell me… about it…?"

Kanata looks at Ryoken and feels bad for not telling him about her cancer. They were childhood friends after all and they shouldn't keep secrets for a really long time. "It's strange that I kept this a secret from you. Or rather, why I didn't tell you about it?" Then she gives a smile towards him. "Maybe it's because… I didn't want you to worry about me, like how my parents are."

Ryoken blinked in surprised when she said that. Him? Worried? He never worries about anything. … Okay. Maybe he is worried about Kanata a lot. This is cancer. A sickness that can actually kill you. And it came after his old friend. Why? Why does the universe hate him?

"I started to have cancer when I was 9 years old. I've been getting a lot of bruises and then this hay fever came, so my parents took me to the hospital and the doctors conformed that I got cancer," she explained to Ryoken, who is still devastated that his friend has cancer, "so they pulled me out of school and the doctors did some treatment to help get rid of the cancer so much."

She got cancer when she was 9 years old? That was 7 years ago and the around the same time his father got infected by the virus, leaving him into a coma. What the hell…?

"So, most of my life, I've been going in and out of the hospital because of my treatment. Usually I go back to the hospital because of my nosebleeds and throw ups. And this time, I'm here for my chemo treatment."

"Chemo? You mean that stuff that will make you lose your hair…?"

"Yup. That's the one." She said with a sad smile. "Even though I'll lose my hair, it will help me get better."

Ryoken looks down at the floor and covers his eyes with his hair. His whole body shakes a bit. Why? Why does the universe have to do this to him? He phones the police to save six children from torture, his father gets arrested. His father returns after 3 years of imprisonment, he gets inflicted by a virus that resulted him in a coma. He tries to destroy Link VRAINS with the Tower of Hanoi, Playmaker comes and stops him. He tried to join forces with Playmaker and the others to stop the Light Ignis, 5 out of 6 of them get killed by it and Bowman, including himself. Then his ghost father comes back and haunts him, and now he is in a mental hospital. Now he is reunited with his old childhood friend after avoiding her for 10 years, he learns that she has cancer and she can actually die from it. Ryoken feels like he is cursed…

"You know, Ryomi, you've never answered my question earlier."

"Huh…?"

"Why are you wearing the Den City mental hospital clothes?"

Oh right… He forgot about that… He really doesn't want to tell her, but… If he manages to tell her secret to him, then he can tell his secret to her, even if it means Ryoken will never see Kanata again. "I… I have a mental illness."

Kanata's eyes widen in surprised, but Ryoken keeps on speaking. "A few days ago, I saw my late father's ghost and he is been on my mind ever since, and nobody, except for me, can see him. Not even you can see him."

Kanata gulps a little bit. "You're dad is a ghost?" Kanata looks around the closet, kind of scared a little bit. "Is he here now?"

Ryoken sees that his ghost father has appeared and he has listen to everything that he and Kanata been talking about. Including Kanata's cancer. "Yes. He's here."

"Zoinks!"

Ryoken's eyes cast down to the floor once again. "And I'm sorry that I have never told you about it… If I have told you about my mental illness, then you would have been scared of me, or better yet, get angry at me and hate me forever. I didn't want to lose the only person who still cares about me…"

Silence was made in the room. Ryoken shut his eyes tight as he is expecting Kanata to yell at him any time now.

"Why would I do that?"

Ryoken opened his eyes when Kanata asked him that. She… wasn't angry at him?

"I shouldn't be mad at you just because you can see your dead dad. I want to help you get through it, no matter the cost. I know that you've missed so much after he died in prison, so I want to support you and help as much as I can. Cause, we're friends, after all." Kanata gives Ryoken as sympathetic smile for support.

Ryoken just stood there without saying anything. Maybe… she's right. If she can support him for his mental illness, then maybe… he can try to support, and hopefully, help her, with her cancer.

So, he walks over to Kanata and hugs her, which made Kanata surprised he did it. "Ryomi?"

"I… I want to help you get through with your cancer. I want to be by your side no matter what. I'll make sure you'll get through this… Kanashi."

Kanata's eyes widen of what Ryoken has said, then she smiles. "You called me by my nickname."

"Of course I did. You're my friend and I care about you so much. That's why I want to help you fight the cancer inside you. Even if it gets any worse, I will still help you."

Kanata really appreciates it so much. Then she hugs Ryoken back. "Thank you, Ryomi. I'm glad I have someone like you who still has a big heart."

Ryoken nods his head, and without her knowing for a bit, he lets his tears fall for a bit. He will do anything to help Kanata… no, Kanashi, get through this and he will make sure that Kanashi will help him get through his mental illness and that his ghost father will be gone forever. They will both get through this.

* * *

Ryoken returns to the mental hospital room to give the medicine to Kamiyama. He brings Kanashi with him so he can introduce her to his new friends.

Kamiyama approaches to Ryoken. "There you are, Kogami-san. I was beginning to worry that you might of escape."

"Sorry. I kind of bumped into someone that I know." He hands the medicine to Kamiyama.

Kamiyama takes the medicine from Ryoken. "Thank you for bringing this to me." He then notices Kanashi. "Funakoshi-san? What are you doing out of your room?"

Kanashi looks at Kamiyama and smiles. "I'm sorry, Doctor Kamiyama. I just wanted to go see Miki for a bit and then I ran into an old friend of mine."

Kamiyama looks at Ryoken for a bit, then looks at Kanashi, then back at Ryoken, then back Kanashi again. "You two know each other?" He asked the two teens.

Ryoken and Kanashi both nod their heads as a reply. "We've known each other since we were little kids." Kanashi told the doctor.

"Ah. I see. And you do know that Kogami-san has a mental illness, right?"

"Yes, Doctor Kamiyama. Ryomi just told me about it."

"Very well then. I'll leave you two be." Kamiyama leaves the two teens alone.

Ryoken grabs Kanashi's hand and guides her to where Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, Tomo, Chika, and the other mental patients are at. "Ryo-Ryo! You're just in time!" Nobuyuki said with a grin on his face, then he notices Kanashi. "Who's this?"

"Everybody, this is my old childhood friend, Kanata Funakoshi." Ryoken introduces to his friend to his mental hospital friends.

Kanashi gives a bow. "Nice to meet you, minna. Call me Kanashi if you like."

All of the mental patients greet Kanashi in a friendly manner, and Ryoken made sure that none of them get too close to her face. Kanashi even gives out nicknames for Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, and Chika. Nobuyuki is nicknamed Nobushima, Hirabayashi is nicknamed Morishi, and Chika is nicknamed Chikuko. She couldn't think of a nickname for Tomo since her last name is Ohno, but Tomo tells her to call her by just her own nickname, which Kanashi agrees, and Tomo calls her Kana-chan for short.

Then Kanashi notices what the mental patients are watching on the TV. "Hey! Are you watching the Battle City Tournament Part 3?" She asked as she goes over to the couch and sits next to Nobuyuki.

"Wait, you watch this kind of stuff?" He asked, kind of surprised.

"Me and Ryomi watched the first part of it online, and then second part. I didn't think Neo Domino City will held a third part of the Battle City Tournament."

"Well, you're in luck! They're about to show the finale between Muto and Kaiba!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah! Hey, Ryo-Ryo! Get over here before they start!"

"I'll be right there, Nobuyuki. I just need to handle something first." Ryoken turns and heads over to the table where Tanaka and Osamu are sitting at. Once he is there, he glares at Tanaka and crosses his arms. "Tanaka, can we talk?"

"A serious talk? Alright then. I will handle all of the talking since I am Tanaka-sama's personal assistant!" Osamu said, looking very confident.

Ryoken made a weird face when Osamu said that, then he looks back at Tanaka. "In private?"

Osamu is now upset when Ryoken said they should talk in private. So, Tanaka gets up from his seat and follows Ryoken to the hall. "Alright, noob, what is it you wanna say?"

Ryoken keeps on glaring at Tanaka, and he is not happy. "You talked with Kanashi when you first met, along with Zaizen and Sugisaki, right?" He asked.

"Yeah. They were nice. Well, too nice to be exact, but they weren't annoying as well. Well, Akira Zaizen's sister kinda scares me a little bit. And Coma Girl is kind of naive, so is Funakoshi." He told the 18 year old.

"Why did you lie to me?"

Tanaka got confused when Ryoken asked that question. "Wuzzat?"

"You told me that Kanashi's friend has cancer, but it was actually Kanashi who has cancer. So why did you lie to me, Tanaka?"

Tanaka gets annoyed by it. "I didn't lie or anything at all! I told you, I don't pay attention on what those girls were saying."

"If you didn't pay attention to what the girls were saying, then what on Earth did you pay attention to?"

"Um… Their faces. Their soft voices. … Their busts… Their sexy busts. Including Funakoshi's big ones… So sexy…"

Ryoken's eyes widen in shock when Tanaka said that. Then he shut his eyes tight and he is very pissed off.

"YOU GODDAMN PERVERT!"

_BLAM!_

"WHAAAAAAAOOOOOWWW!"

Kanashi and Nobuyuki heard the screams from the hallways. "What was that?" She asked, kind of worried.

"Oh, nothing." He told the 16 year old girl. "Tanaka probably did something stupid and Ryo-Ryo got upset about it."

And that's exactly what happened, because Tanaka comes walking in, holding his nose, which is bleeding, and Ryoken comes walking in as well, and he is still pissed off and sat down on the couch next to Kanashi.

"Tanaka never learns, does he?" Hirabayashi asked the pissed off 18 year old.

"No. He doesn't. That pervert…" Ryoken grumbles.

Kanashi looks at Ryoken with a worried look. She doesn't know what happened at the hallway or why Ryoken thinks Tanaka is a pervert, but she does know that he is very upset.

So, she reaches towards Ryoken's hand and squeezes it gently, which made Ryoken surprised.

He turns his head and looks at Kanashi, who gives him a gentle smile. Then after a moment, Ryoken smiles and gently squeezes Kanashi's hand back.

* * *

After the Battle City Tournament Part 3 ended, with Yugi Muto being the winner (Obviously), it's dinner time and Chef Opal made veggie mush, much to the mental patients' complains, but Kanashi doesn't mind to try it out, which shocks them a lot.

Soon, Kanashi began to ate the whole bowl of veggie mush, and later, it was all gone, much to everyone's surprise.

"Holy crap! No one has ever eaten Chef Opal's disgusting food!" Nobuyuki said as he is still surprised that Kanashi ate it. "How did you manage to not throw up from this stuff?"

Kanashi giggles at Nobuyuki's question. "It's not so bad. I just pretend that it's porridge and down the hatch it goes. That's all."

All of the sudden, Nobuyuki falls to his knees and bends his back over like he is bowing to some queen or something. "Teach me your ways, Funakoshi-sensei!"

Kanashi got startled and is very surprised that Nobuyuki called her that.

* * *

After dinner, Chika got one of her gaming systems, the new Nantendo Swap and plugs it in the TV and she, Kanashi, and Tomo play Heroic Bash Brothers and they were enjoying it.

"It's kind of funny how it's called Heroic Bash Brothers when none of the guys are playing it." Tomo said as she is playing the game.

"You're right! I feel like I'm having my first girls night out!" Kanashi said as she is playing the game.

"Kind of violent for a girls night out, Kana-chan." She explained to the 16 year old.

So far, Chika is in the lead of winning and after a few hours of playing, Chika won.

Kamiyama comes in and sees the whole group just having fun. "Funakoshi-san, it's time for you to go back to your room."

Kanashi looks at Kamiyama and gets upset and made a pouty face. "Awww… Already?"

"You need rest now or your cancer will get worse. Plus, I have to treat you with chemotherapy tomorrow." He told her.

"Mmm… Okay." Kanashi gets up from the floor and walks to the door where Kamiyama is standing at. She turns around and faces the remaining mental patients. "It was really nice meeting you all. And Ryomi, I'll see you soon!"

Ryoken smiles at Kanashi. "Yeah. You too."

And with that, Kanashi leaves the mental hospital room. Then Kamiyama faces at the mental patients. "Make sure you all go to bed and no sneaking out during the night." And then he leaves the mental hospital room to escort Kanashi back to her room.

Ryoken can't stop smiling for some reason after Kanashi left. Nobuyuki notices. "Hey, Ryo-Ryo. You feeling okay?"

Ryoken looks at Nobuyuki in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, whenever you keep staring at Funakoshi, you keep smiling a lot and I can see some blush on your cheeks. It's as seems that you kind of have a crush on her or something."

Geez, what is with everyone thinking that Ryoken has this thing on Kanashi. It's getting annoying. "It's not what it looks like." He told his friend.

Nobuyuki shrugs for a bit. "If you say so." And he heads back to his room. So did Tomo. And then Hirabayashi, who carries Chika to her room.

Soon Ryoken heads to his room and lays down on his bed and then he keeps thinking about Kanashi.

His ghost father appears by his son side. "Mizushima does have a point, son. You seem to have feelings for Kanata." He told him.

_'_ _Good lord. It's not-'_ Ryoken tries to tell his ghost father that through his thoughts, but then stops for a moment. Ever since he learned that Kanashi had cancer, he never wants to lose her at all and promised her that he will support her no matter what. Then he held her hand after he got pissed off by Tanaka, he was impressed when she finished eating Chef Opal's veggie mush, and he cheered for her when playing Heroic Bash Brothers. Plus he was smiling sweetly and was blushing so much whenever he thinks about her. Maybe his crush on Kanashi from 10 years is coming back to him. _'Yeah… I guess your right…'_ And with that, he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAWWWW! Ryoken is in love! So sweet! I feel like Ryoken and Kanata's relationship will be similar to Jack and Carly's relationship from 5Ds, even though I haven't watched all the episodes of 5Ds. I think I've seen 5 episodes of it from 2 years, I think. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter 9 of Father Thy Blood! And the next chapter will be Yusaku discovering that Ryoken is in a mental hospital and that Dr. Kogami's ghost is in Ryoken's head. How will Yusaku react to this? You'll all find out soon enough! I'll see you guys very soon!


	11. Turn 112: Found Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku visits the mental hospital and he has discovered Ryoken there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Roboppy going insane is going to be in my nightmares forever… That's even worst than Spectre going psycho… Maybe Chapter 10 of Father Thy Blood might help me get my mind off of Crazy Roboppy. Recap: Hirabayashi comes to visit Kamiyama at night and they talk about Ryoken and Nobuyuki being friends. Seems like Hirabayashi and Kamiyama know each other very well. The next day, the mental hospital patients are getting ready to watch the Battle City Tournament Part 3 when Kamiyama comes in and asked them to pick up the medicine from a pharmacist, which none of them volunteered, well Ryoken volunteered to go get it. When he got the medicine, Ryoken sees Kanata wearing the Den City hospital clothes and he asked her why he is wearing it. Kanata reveals that she has cancer and she has been diagnosis by it when she was 9 years old and her parents force her out of school to check in and out of the hospital for 7 years now, which made Ryoken shocked by it, but he promises Kanata that he will be there to support her and he tells her about him being in a mental hospital because of his ghost father in his mind. Ryoken then introduces Kanata to Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, Tomo, and Chika and they all get along just fine, and then Ryoken punches Tanaka in the nose because he is a giant pervert. Then after Kanata leaves for the night and all of the mental hospital patients went to bed, Ryoken realizes that his crush on Kanata has come back to him and he is falling in love with her. Awww! Now, chapter 10 will have Yusaku finally discovering Ryoken's situation with his ghost father. And Takeru will be there too. So let's get this chapter started so I can get insane Roboppy out of my head!

When morning came, Ryoken comes to visit Kanashi as Kamiyama is putting the chemo inside her. Kanashi looks tired as the chemo is going through her veins, but she gives a smile and waves at Ryoken.

"Alright, Funakoshi-san, your chemo treatment is finished." Kamiyama told the 16 year old girl as he is finished treating her. "You might lose your hair for a couple of weeks, but it will help you feel better."

Kanashi nods as she understands the treatment, because she is too tired to even speak. And with that, Kamiyama leaves the room, leaving just her and Ryoken.

Ryoken goes up to the hospital bed and sits next to Kanashi. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

Kanashi looks at Ryoken very tiredly. "Well, considering that I've been treated to chemo, I would say that I'm a little bit woozy." She told him.

"Sorry I asked." Ryoken looks down at the floor, feeling kind of guilty.

"There's no need to apologize, Ryomi. It's just a little wooziness and-" Suddenly, Kanashi starts to gag and Ryoken realizes that she is about to throw up. He panics as he looks around to find something she can use to… uh… you know… He then sees a bedpan, grabs it, and gives it to Kanashi, who takes it and pukes into it. Ryoken holds her hair as she lets it out. Like… literally. Soon, Kanashi finished puking into the bedpan. "-nausea…"

Ryoken rubs Kanashi's back for some support. It's hard for her to have cancer at a very young age. If he was in Kanashi's place, he would probably have Spectre, Aso, Kyoko, and Genome take care of him and try to help him like he is doing to Kanashi.

"Hey, Ryomi."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for doing this for me."

Ryoken raises his eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

"Supporting me as I go through my cancer. I never have someone who would do something so sweet." Kanashi turns to look and smiles sweetly towards Ryoken, which causes Ryoken to blush a little. "You're still the sweet and good person that I always known."

Ryoken smiles a bit at Kanashi. "Yeah. Me too." He then pulls Kanashi into a hug, then he frowns at the moment. _'No… I'm not anymore.'_ He thought to himself, feeling guilty that he has to keep his secret of him being a cyber terrorist of Link VRAINS and that he got his own father arrested from Kanashi.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Den City Academy, Yusaku, Takeru, and some other students are having a study group section in the library, when all of the sudden, Misaki comes bursting in and is panicking so much. "Help! I need help with mental hospital patients at the Den City Hospital that I'm volunteering for!"

The students all shushed at her because they were all in the library. "Sorry…" She apologized as a sweat drop appeared on her head.

Takeru gets up from his seat and walks over to her. "What's the matter, Misaki-chan?" He asked, very concern.

"Sensei told me that I have to community volunteer work and she assigned me to take care of the mental hospital patients at the Den City Hospital and I am freaking out!" Misaki began to do panic breaths.

Takeru grabs hold of Misaki's shoulders and looks at her. "Hey, hey, hey! Breathe. Breathe. Slowly." Misaki did what Takeru told her and she breathes slowly and calmed down a little bit. "That's better. Now what's with the mental hospital patients in the hospital? I never seen them before."

"Th-they just added the room about, um… 9 years ago, I think…" She said, very nervous.

"And what's wrong with helping them? Aren't they people with mental illness that need to be cured?"

"W-well, that's the thing. They're mental hospital patients with these illness, they act all l-looney and I don't like people who are, well, looney. And with all of those patients going up to my face, I easily faint." She looks down at the floor, kind of embarrassed. "So, I was hoping that one of you guys to come with me to the hospital to help me volunteer." She turns and looks at Airi. "Shimanouchi-san?"

"Pass." Airi answered quickly without a care and without even looking up from her book of supernatural stuff.

"Nngg… I'm desperate here… I don't want to do this alone…" Misaki looks down at the floor in depression.

"I'll come with you, Misaki-chan." Misaki's eyes widen when Takeru said that, looks up to face him, who gives her a smile.

Misaki gives out a relief smile and blushes madly at the time. "Thank you so much, Homura-san!" She then gives a bow to him.

"Anytime. Hey, do you think Yusaku can come with me too?" He asked and Yusaku raises his head from his book when Takeru mentioned his name.

"Fujiki-kun? Um… I don't know…"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Takeru turns to face his friend. "You wouldn't mind, right Yusaku?"

"Sure, I don't mind as long as it's doesn't last long for the night." Yusaku said with his usually dead-pin face.

"Umm… Okay… Just come meet me at the hospital after school." Misaki told the boys and she leaves the library so that everybody can get back to their study group.

* * *

After school has ended, Yusaku and Takeru walk to the hospital to meet Misaki. Ai comes out of Yusaku's duel disk. "So, why does Tanizaki want to do some community work at some asylum?" He asked.

"Because the teacher picked that community service for Tanizaki that she might handle because she's the school nurse's assistant." Yusaku told his Ignis. "Also, it's a mental hospital, not an asylum."

"What's the difference?"

Yusaku rolls his eyes in annoyance when Ai asked him that.

Soon, the two boys arrived at the hospital, where Misaki is standing by the entrance. "I'm so glad you guys are here! Especially you, Homura-san! I'm so nervous that I can barely say my introduce and it turns into gibberish!"

"Well, we're here. Let's get to work!" So, the three teens go inside the hospital entrance.

As soon as the enter and inside the lobby, a middle-age man with glasses, short brown hair, but with slight grey streaks appearing on the sides approaches to them. "Ah. Tanizaki-san, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Doctor Kamiyama and I will be your supervisor as you do your school community service."

Misaki gets nervous and gives a quick bow to the doctor.

Kamiyama then notices Yusaku and Takeru are with Misaki. "Tanizaki-san, who are these young boys?"

Misaki bends up straight and becomes a nervous rack. "IamMisakiTanizakiPleasetomeetyou!" She said super fast and super nervous which made Kamiyama sweat drop.

"We're just here to help Misaki-chan, that's all." Takeru explained to the doctor. "She's kind of nervous to do this."

"Ah. I see. Well, that is very nice of you two boys to help out." Kamiyama smiles at the boys. "Now that you are here, follow me." The doctor leads the teens to the mental room. Misaki is so nervous that she is walking like some robot.

Without the doctor or Misaki looking, Yusaku looks down at his duel disk where Ai is in. "Ai, remember, stay quiet or else people would freak out and they might hurt you."

Ai appears in a form of an eyeball. "Like how Bowman did with my friends…"

Yusaku made a sad face when Ai mentioned it. He knows that he cares for the other Ignises and to see them get all destroyed after he defeated Bowman in the duel. "Ai…"

"Don't worry, Yusaku-chan, I'll be as quiet as a mouse."

Yusaku gives a nod to his Ignis.

They made it to the mental room and Kamiyama turns and looks at the teens. "Wait here. I need to tell the patients about it." And he goes inside the room.

* * *

The mental patients are just minding their own business until Kamiyama comes inside the room. "Everybody, may I have your attention please?" They all turn and look at the doctor. "We will be having a student from Den City Academy volunteering to help out here for a school community service and she brought some friends to help her out. Be nice to her and don't freak her out."

"A teen from Den City Academy is volunteering to help us? Why not just have a criminal who just got out of jail do to community service here?" Nobuyuki asked, kind of upset about it.

"It's not that bad. I used to know someone who did community service at school during his 1st year, now he is in his 3rd year and treats 1st years like crap." Ryoken said, referring to Manato.

"Well he must be an asshole. By the way, who are the two people that helping this chick?"

"Well, whoever they are, she's probably grateful that they're here to help her."

Kamiyama goes to the door and opens it. "Alright. You three can come in now."

Ryoken turns to see the student from Den City Academy. A girl with long dark purple hair and brown eyes comes in, walking like some robot. She seems nervous. And then two other students walk in as well, in which Ryoken recognizes, much to his shock. "Oh no…"

Nobuyuki notices Ryoken's shocked expression on those two boys. "What's wrong, Ryo-Ryo? Do you know these two?"

Ryoken looks at Nobuyuki and he is kind of freaking out. "What? No! I do not! Not at all!" Then he gets up all of the sudden. "But if yo excuse me, I gotta go somewhere and it's not hiding from those boys!" And with that, Ryoken ran away.

"Ryo-Ryo!" Nobuyuki called out to him, but Ryoken just ignored him.

Tanaka notices as well and raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

* * *

Misaki stands in front of all of the mental hospital patients with Yusaku and Takeru by her side. "HiMynameisMisakiTanizakiandIhopewecanallgetalongwitheachother!" She said as talked super fast and super nervous, then she bows her head, only to hit it on the table that is in front of her. "Ow!"

The mental hospital patients laughed on Misaki's behavior.

Misaki is now upset of this humiliation. "I am so ashamed…"

Takeru puts a hand on her shoulder and she looks at him. "It's alright, Misaki-chan. With us, I'm sure you'll handle this."

Misaki blushes so hard that her face looks like a tomato. "Th-thank you, Homura-san." He gave her a smile, then he turns to greet some of the mental hospital patients, and Misaki gives out a lovely sigh and stares at him romantically.

Yusaku walks around the mental room and looks at the patients for a bit. Ai, in his eyeball form, looks around for a bit too. "Mmm. Let's see what kind of illness these guys have." He began to scan on the patients.

He first patient he scans was a woman in her late 20s and she is smoking a cigarette. Her name is Moriko Hirabayashi and her mental illness is server trauma of being abused by her ex-boyfriend and has been here for 8 years. "Ouch. How is it that she sign out of this place?" Ai asked himself.

The Dark Ignis found another patient and this one was another woman who is probably around the same age as Yusaku or older. He scans her and her name is Tomone Ohno and her mental illness is how she try to kill herself by cutting herself after being abuse by her father. "Man, are all these people here in the mental hospital because of being abused."

Ai finds another patient, and this time it's a man so is also in his 20s. He scans him and his name is Nobuyuki Mizushima. Ai laughs at his last name. The guy's last name is Mizu **shima** and Yusaku's classmate's last name is **Shima** nouchi and Brave Max's last is actually **Shima**. It's kind of funny. But that's not the point. This guy's mental illness is because he drinks too much at the age of 16 and he now has a drinking problem. "Starting drinking as a minor? Couldn't you wait until you start drinking at 20 years old?"

Mizushima notices Yusaku's duel disk and looks at it. Ai freaks out because he might think he saw him and he closes his eye to pretend he is just a regular old duel disk.

The patient walks over to Yusaku for a moment. "Hey, is that one of those old duel disks you're wearing?"

Yusaku looks at him, then looks at his duel disk. "Yeah. What about it?"

"I'm just surprised to seen them again. There's been a lot of people with those newer and fancier duel disks on their wrists that they don't care about the old ones."

"Well, those new duel disks were made by SOL Technologies after all."

"Eh. Maybe you're right. By the way, do you know where my friend is? He sort of run off somewhere when you, the service girl, and the other guy came in for no reason at all."

"Hm… I can go look for him. Where do you think he went?"

"Um… I think he went to the kitchen. You should go there. By the way, if Chef Opal asks you to try her food, please say no."

Yusaku is sort of confused when he said that, but he heads to the kitchen.

* * *

Ryoken quickly goes inside the kitchen so that Playmaker and Soulburner won't see him in a mental hospital clothes.

"Eh? New kid?" Ryoken turns and sees Chef Opal getting ready to make food until he came in. "Why are you in Chef Opal's kitchen?"

"I need to hide from some guys that I know. I'm really good friends with them, but I know, and if they find out that I am in a mental hospital, I don't know how they will reaction." He told the chef. "So, is it okay if I pretend to work here until they're gone?"

Chef Opal's eyes widen when Ryoken asked that question and then smiles pretty wide. "Ohoho! New kid wants to be apprentice for the day!" She grabs Ryoken's arm and pulls him to one of the kitchen counters. She then grabs a chef's hat and puts it on Ryoken's head. "Chef Opal will teach you so many things about cooking! What foods have you made so far?"

"Uh… Just scramble eggs and toast, and pasta."

Chef Opal slams her spatula on the counter, which startles Ryoken. "No good! I will teach you how to make Chef Opal's famous veggie mush, meat smoothie, and my personal favorite, mushroom surprise!"

Ryoken starts to gag a bit. He does not want to learn how to cook those garbagio stuff she calls food. "Don't you cook something else that's in your cookbook of yours?" He asked.

"Huh? Cookbook?" She turns her head and looks at the book that is on the counter, then she looks at Ryoken. "I see funny rectangle thing with lots of papers inside on the counter, but I don't know what to do with it."

Ryoken goes over to the counter, picks up the book, and looks at it. This is defiantly the cookbook that he mentioned and it hasn't been used at all. That explains why Chef Opal makes gross food. He turns to face the chef. "Is it okay if I use this for a bit?"

"Sure. It no good to me. Now, start cooking your own meal so I can taste it! I, myself, have my own cooking to do!" And with that Chef Opal went back to cooking her own 'food.'

Ryoken goes back to the counter Chef Opal placed him at, puts the cookbook on it, and opens with. There are a lot of recipes in it and some of them are kind of hard to make, but there is one recipe that is easy for him to make. An oyakodon, a chicken and egg rice bowl that is pretty good.

He needs 6 tablespoons of dashi, either it's homemade or instant. Ryoken goes up to the cabinet and found some dashi in it. He also finds a tablespoon in the silverware and also a bowl to use to make in. He uses the tablespoon to pour the dashi six times in the bowl.

He looks down at the cookbook and it says that he needs 2 tablespoons of dry sake. He suddenly hears the door opening and he panics because it might be Playmaker or Soulbunrer coming in. So he grabs an oven mitt to cover his hand with his birthmark on it, and then he pulls the chef hat down to his face.

"Watcha doing, newbie?" Ryoken recognizes that voice. He pulls the chef hat out of his face and he sees Tanaka, holding his chin on his hand and he's looking at him.

"Why are you here?" He asked, kind of annoyed.

"I saw you running towards the kitchen, you know, the same kitchen where Chef Opal makes her disgusting food. So, I followed you and I am very surprised that you are being an apprentice to her."

"I'm not going to be Chef Opal's apprentice. I'm just hiding from those two guys until they leave." He told him.

"You mean those two Den City Academy boys who are with that Tanizaki chick?"

"Yeah. So, can you please get away from me and let me pretend for a bit and not mess things up?"

"Alright. Fine. I'll leave you alone." Tanaka was about to leave, but then stops and turns to face Ryoken. "By the way, while you're cooking and stuff, do you think you can cook me some Kung Pow Chicken for me?"

Ryoken looks at Tanaka with a confusing look. "What?"

"Oh. And add soup on the side too."

"Get out!"

Tanaka raises his hands as a sign of chill down, he's leaving, and he left the kitchen.

Ryoken gets back to work and goes to get dry sake from the cabinet. He pours the dry sake in the bowl 2 times from the tablespoon. Then later, he added 2 tablespoons of mirin, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 skin-on chicken thighs, deboned (He asked Chef Opal for help, but she doesn't know what chicken is, so he did it himself, which is kind of gross, but he didn't mind), 1 small onion, thinly sliced, and lengthwise, 4 eggs, and 6 sprigs of mitsuba, cut into 1-inch lengths.

He keeps on working on the oyakodon, but then he hears the door to the kitchen opened, then he panic and pulls the chef hat over his face. He hears footsteps coming close to him. "Excuse me, chef." Ryoken recognizes that voice. It's Playmaker's. "There was a mental patient that went to the kitchen. Have you seen him?"

Ryoken can't speak, otherwise Playmaker will find out it's him. So, he just shakes his head, no.

"Oh. I see. By the way, what are you making? Oyakodon?"

Ryoken nods at Playmaker's question.

"That was my mom's favorite. I never tried it before, but it must be really good."

Playmaker's mother… He wishes he can ask the question if he knows Chika, but he can't right now.

"Hmm… I want to know who this chef is. Can I scan him, Yusaku-chan?" Ryoken recognizes that voice and his eyes widen in shock. It was the Dark Ignis. Crap! If that thing scans him, then he's busted.

So he tries to run away, but forgot that he covered his face with the chef's hat, and his crashes into something that bangs a lot. It might be pots and pans.

"Hey! Are you okay?!" Playmaker asked in a concern voice and runs over to him, then pulls the chef hat off his face.

Ryoken and Playmaker both stare at each other for a moment and Ryoken knows that Playmaker is surprised to see him, wearing mental hospital clothes.

"Revolver?"

Ryoken looks down at the ground. He is truly busted…

* * *

After they cleaned up the mess for Chef Opal, Tanizaki is busy doing the community service, which she is really nervous about, while Playmaker, Soulburner, and the Dark Ignis sit at the table and look at Ryoken.

Soulburner is kind of staring at Ryoken. Obviously this is the first time he is seeing him without his avatar in Link VRAINS. "So… This is Revolver's real life self? A mental hospital patient?"

"No, Takeru. Revolver isn't a mental hospital patient when I first met him. I don't know why he's in the mental hospital."

"Does it has something to do with everything that has happened with Revolver-chan's life, with the Lost Incident, his dad dying, and him failing a lot?"

Ryoken glares at the Dark Ignis as if he wants to kill it immedientlly.

The Dark Ignis got frighten by Ryoken's look. "I'll just shut up now." It goes back inside Playmaker's duel disk.

Playmaker then looks at Ryoken with a concern look while Soulburner glares at him. Looks like he still hates him after what happened. "Revolver. Can you please tell us why you are in the mental hospital? And please, don't lie."

Ryoken looks down at the table. If he tells him, then Playmaker and Soulburner will be super mad now, but if he doesn't, Playmaker will just stay here and force him to tell and they'll still get angry if he tells them.

So, Ryoken sighs in defeat. "You want me to talk, huh? Fine. I… I can see ghosts in my head."

Playmaker's eyes widen in surprise, while Soulburner's eyes widen in fear. "Gh-ghosts?! Did he just say ghosts?!" Soulburner asked in complete fear.

"Yes. I did, Soulburner. And this ghost is someone you two will either be shock at or be angry towards."

Ryoken sees Playmaker's eyebrows knotted a bit. He probably knows what he is talking about. "Who? Who is it?" And those eyes. Those are the same pain in Playmaker's eyes from 10 years ago. He really doesn't want to see it himself, but he has no choice.

With another sigh of defeat, Ryoken looks at the two boys with a serious look on his father. "It's my father. Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami."

The Dark Ignis pops out of Playmaker's duel disk and his eyes widen in shock. "EEEEEEEEEEEHHHH?!"

Soulburner's eyes widen in shock as well. "Did you say Dr. Kogami? Isn't he dead?!"

"He is, but after the war between the Light Ignis was over, he somehow appeared in my head and only I can see him. In order to get rid of him, Spectre signed me up to be treated at the mental hospital."

Ryoken sees Playmaker look down at the table and he seems pretty upset. That is making Ryoken pretty guilty right now. "I know what my father did to you, and Soulburner, and the other children was horrible and wrong, but you don't have to be mad at me because I can see him." He told him.

"I'm not mad, Revolver, I'm just a little overwhelmed by it, that's all." Playmaker said, then he looks up at Ryoken with a concern look in his eyes. "Why… didn't you tell me about this? I've could of helped you."

Ryoken looks at Playmaker. "Why should I? We're not friends and we'll never will be. End of story."

"Revolver…"

"And besides, if I did tell you, you would be angry that my father is in there and let your anger out at him, or worse, be scared of him because of what happened 10 years ago."

Playmaker looks down at the table again, looking very sad.

"Um… Just one question about your daddy, Revolver-chan. Uh… He didn't come back from the dead to get rid of me, right? Cause if so, I really don't want to die." The Dark Ignis seems to be a bit nervous.

"Unfortunately, no. He's… only after me." He told the Dark Ignis.

"Oh thank God! Wait, what?" The Dark Ignis is really confused.

"Why would your own father go after you?" Soulburner asked, also confused by this.

"Because he suddenly knows that I call the police on him, 10 years ago." Ryoken's eyebrows knotted in fear. "I always been afraid that if my father had found out about it, he would hate me forever. Now that he is a ghost, he wants to hurt me and that scares me. So that's why going through the mental hospital with nut-cases, and an idiot, is the only way to get rid of him for good."

Playmaker looks at Ryoken, who looks down at the table again. He feels pretty bad for him that he has to go through this. He reaches his hand towards him. "Revol-"

"No. Don't." He stopped him. "I'll be fine, Playmaker. I don't need you to worry about me. I can handle this myself. You and Soulburner just leave now. I don't care if you're helping Tanizaki with this whole school community service thing, I just want you to leave."

Playmaker looks at Ryoken, eyebrows knotted in sadness, then after a moment, he sighs in defeat. "Alright. We'll leave. Come on, Takeru, let's get Tanizaki and go home."

They get up from their chairs, but before going to Misaki, Ryoken sees Soulburner putting a hand up. "Before we leave, there's something I want to give to Revolver now that I finally got to meet him face to face."

Ryoken sighs in frustration and rubs his temples. "Can you make it quick? Cause I feel like I want to go to-"

_BLAM_

Ryoken fell out of his chair and lands on the floor on his back and holding his left eye after being punched really hard by Soulburner's fist.

Soulburner glares at Ryoken as his hand clenches in a fist while Playmaker, and everybody in the mental hospital room, all stare in shock of what just happened. "That was for letting us stay in that hellhole for 10 years, for bailing our duel, and for getting us killed in Mirror Link VRAINS, you asshole!" Soulburner yelled in anger.

Ryoken groans in pain as he hears Tanizaki panicking and Tanaka laughing.

* * *

After Playmaker, Soulburner, and Tanizaki left, Ryoken is sitting on the couch and he now has a black eye on his left eye, and Tomo puts a frozen steak on his left eye and he winces in pain.

"You know, Kogami, I was going to punch you sometime later, whenever I feel like it," Tanaka said, crossing his arms, "but I am so glad that kid from Den City Academy punched you in the eye! Pay back for punching me in the nose!" Then he started laughing at Ryoken out loud.

"Shut up, Tanaka." Nobuyuki tells him, glaring at him.

Tanaka stops laughing, wipe his eye, and has a smile on his face.

Nobuyuki looks at Ryoken, kind of worried. "But I am a little concern about you, Ryo-Ryo. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, Nobuyuki. It's just a black eye. I'm not dying or anything." He said.

"But still, that kid really punch you really hard. What did you do to him that made him mad?"

Ryoken looks down at the floor. "I don't want to talk about it…"

"Well, either way, it was pretty funny. I am so glad I wasn't in your shoes, Kogami." Tanaka said, with that same smile on his face.

Ryoken just glares at Tanaka.

Just then Chef Opal comes in and goes up to Ryoken. "Ah, new kid. I have come to tell you that you are my new apprentice for cooking!"

Ryoken raises his eyebrow. "What? Why? I said I was just pretending until those boys from Den City Academy leave, and they did."

"Don't care! I taste your chicken egg dish and it was delicious! So, I hire you as my apprentice! Apprenticeship starts tomorrow." She sees the steak that is on Ryoken's eye. "Ah! There is Chef Opal's meat!" She takes the steak from Tomo's hands and was about to go back to the kitchen before she looks at Tanaka. "I am glad you are here, Tanaka. I make meat smoothie just for you! See you in cafeteria." And she went back to the kitchen, leaving Tanaka with a disgusting look.

Tanaka starts to gag a lot and heads to the bathroom to puke. Ryoken grins when he hears Tanaka puking in the bathroom. _'Heh. Look whose laughing now, Tanaka.'_ He thought to himself, satisfied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's about it for Chapter 10. Yusaku finally knows that Ryoken is in the mental hospital and that Dr. Kogami's ghost is in his head, and so does Ai, and Takeru. And I am sorry for all of you Ryoken fangirls that you have to read that Takeru punched him in the eye, but I have to do it, because the writers of VRAINS didn't actually show Ryoken and Takeru actually meeting in real life, so I actually wrote that. Also, Tanaka is being a real jerk towards Ryoken, I don't even know why I even created him, but I did. But I'm glad I wrote this chapter cause it helped me get my mind off of insane crazy Roboppy in episode 114 of VRAINS. BTW, R.I.P. Roboppy. I hope she/he is brought back in the future. I hope… Anyway, I'll see you guys for chapter 11!


	12. Turn 113: Yusaku and Ryoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken is surprised to see Playmaker visiting him at the mental hospital, and he is being friendly with him. That's something Ryoken doesn't see everyday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Chapter 11 is ready in section! Recap: Ryoken visits Kanata in her hospital after she is treated to chemotherapy and she is glad that he is still the good person she knows from childhood, to which Ryoken is not, according to Ryoken himself. Meanwhile, Misaki is panicking because her teacher signs her up to do school community service at the mental hospital, the same mental hospital that Ryoken is in, so Yusaku and Takeru decided to help her out. Ryoken sees them and tries to hide from them by pretending to be working in Chef Opal's kitchen, in which Chef Opal needs an apprentice, but the cat's out of the bed when Yusaku, Ai, and Takeru discovered Ryoken and he tells them about his father's ghost inside his head. Yusaku tries to console him, but Ryoken tells him that he will be fine and tells him, Ai, and Takeru to leave, but Takeru gives Ryoken a really good hard punch in the face for having them go through the Lost Incident 10 years ago, bailing on their duel from episode 84 of VRAINS (But they decided to settle things in episode 115), and for getting Takeru, Aoi, Spectre, Kusanagi, and himself (Along with the rest of the people in Link VRAINS, including Akira and Emma) killed by Lightning and Bowman, leaving Ryoken a black eye on his left eye. Ouch. Oh, and Chef Opal made Ryoken her apprentice, even though Ryoken was only pretending. This time, in this chapter, there will be the slight Datastormshipping moments, in which there will be some Datastormshippers who will be very pleased, so enjoy the next chapter!

**_ DREAM _ **

_The blast from the Light Ignis' last attack was powerful that it send Revolver flying through the flower field and knocked him unconscious for a brief moment. He laid there until he heard a voice._

_"_ _Revolver! Pull yourself together, Revolver!"_

_Revolver opens his eyes slightly and he sees Playmaker kneeling down besides him and he and the Dark Ignis are looking at him. Playmaker was giving out a concern look for him._

_Revolver gives out a frown because of what happened. "I didn't expect the Light Ignis to destroy itself." He said, very upset and very tired, but then suddenly gives out a smile after saying that. "I let my guard down."_

_"_ _Revolver! You did well!" The Dark Ignis said, trying to cheer him up. It helped a little bit._

_Laying in this flower field brought back some good memories of his childhood and his time with Kanata, before the Lost Incident happened. He really missed those times._

_Revolver looks at Playmaker and the Dark Ignis for a moment with the same smile on his face. "When I was young, I'd lay down in a field of flowers and look up at the sky, like how I'm doing now," he explained to them calmly, then he looks back up to the sky. "I'm reminded of those times." And he closed his eyes of his childhood._

_Him playing with Kanata, showing her the flower field he had discovered, Kanata playfully turning him into a horse and that he pretended to be a horse as she rode on him through the flower field, laying on the flower field looking up at the sky and how they get super excited about the world and plan to go travel all over the world together when they grow up, all of those happy memories before the Lost Incident even began._

_"_ _I had no trouble back then," he said, opening his eyes, "I was just excited about the world that spread before my eyes." After thinking about it, Revolver realizes that this is the first time he had talked about his childhood past in front of Playmaker and the Dark Ignis, but he never mentioned Kanata at all. He guessed he is kind of tired that he kind of forgot about her._

_He looked at the young boy and the Ignis one last time, then he feels himself turning into data. It was time._

_"_ _I'm leaving before you." He said, then suddenly, he lifted his arm and reaches towards Playmaker. "I leave the rest to you, Playmaker… and Ai." Then he drops his hand to the ground, closed his eyes, and disappears with the same smile on his face._

**_DREAM ENDED_ **

Ryoken wakes up from his sleep because of that dream. It was morning already. He keeps having that same dream over and over again after the Ignis Warfare has ended, but he never understand why he keeps having that dream of him explaining to Playmaker and the Dark Ignis about his time in the flower field or why he reached his hand towards Playmaker or why he called the Dark Ignis by that dumb name.

He turns his head and sees his ghost father giving him a fatherly smile. The same as always during every morning now. He's kind of getting used to it. "Good morning, son." He said.

Ryoken looks at his ghost father for a moment, then places his arm over his eyes. "Yeah, yeah…"

His ghost father gives him a concern look. "Is something wrong, son? You seem kind of upset."

"I'm fine, father," he told him, "just keep having that same dream over and over again and it still makes me confused."

"I see. A dream that stumps you very much."

Ryoken gives out a tiring sigh and gets out of bed. "Maybe splashing my face with water will help me a bit." He goes to the bathroom, turns on the sink and splashes water on his face. He looks up from the sink and looks at the bathroom mirror. He lift his hand and touches his black eye and winces a bit. "Ugh… How am I supposed to explain to Spectre about the black eye that Soulburner gave me?"

"That was a very nasty punch that young boy gave you. I can understand that he suffered from my experiment 10 years ago, but what is this about bailing on a duel and getting everyone killed?" His ghost father asked.

"Well, Soulburner challenged me to a duel, but I didn't want to because I wanted to team up with Playmaker and the others to fight the Light Ignis, and I don't want to talk about that other part."

"Very well then." And with that, his ghost father disappears back inside Ryoken's head.

After a quick shower and quickly brushing his teeth, because the bathroom is dirty, Ryoken walks out of his bedroom and goes to the lounge where he sees Nobuyuki waving at him.

"Morning, Ryo-Ryo-"

Suddenly, Chef Opal appears and stands in front of Ryoken and behind Nobuyuki, making the two boys surprised by it.

"Apprentice! You are needed in the kitchen immedientlly!" She said, very serious.

Ryoken gives out an annoying sigh. "Chef Opal, we've been over this. I don't want to be your apprentice in cooking. I barely know how to cook."

"No backsies!" She then grabs Ryoken's arm very tight. "We go to kitchen and cook!" And then she drags him to the kitchen, leaving Nobuyuki alone.

"Um… Okay. I'll see you in the cafeteria, I guess…"

Once they are in the kitchen, Chef Opal places Ryoken to stand by the kitchen counter, then she pulls out the chef's hat and places it on his head. "Alright apprentice, I am going to make veggie mush, so I need all of the vegetables in the kitchen you can find. Go go go!"

Ryoken did as Chef Opal said and looks for some vegetables. He found a cucumber, a tomato, asparagus, and some other vegetables in there. He places them on the counter. "Ah. Good apprentice." Chef Opal places them all in one large bowl. "Now, we mash them all!" She grabs a wooden stick, and mashes them in the bowl. Some of the smashed veggie splatter on Ryoken's face and he gags a bit. He moves away from there so he wouldn't get veggies on his face or smell that disgusting food.

He stands there for a while as Chef Opal mashes the veggies into mush, thinking over his dream. Well, he's not sure if that was a dream or if it was a memory. If it was one of his memory after he lost to the Light Ignis, then he would of remembered it right now. So then why would he dream of it all of the sudden if he doesn't remember it?

Soon, Chef Opal is finished smashing the vegetables. "Alright, apprentice, open the window gate!"

Ryoken raises his eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

"The iron gate attach to the window and it slides up."

Ryoken looks at the window with the shutters on it. So that what she meant. He goes over there and pulls the shutters up, where all of the mental hospital patients are all waiting, including Tanaka, Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, Tomo, Osamu, and Chika.

Chef Opal goes to the window where the mental patients are standing with the bowl of veggie mush in her arm and a soup ladle in her hand. "Good morning, my little noochkas! I made veggie mush just for all of you!" All of the patients groaned when she said it.

She pours the veggie mush into each patients' bowls, one by one while Ryoken watches for a bit until his shift is over until lunchtime. Nobuyuki goes up to where Ryoken is standing. "You know, if you cook the food that is really good instead of Opal, then it would of been really good."

"That would be nice, but I'm just an apprentice, according to Chef Opal. Plus I'm not much of a cook. I only make scramble eggs and toast for breakfast and pasta for dinner." He told his friend.

"Doesn't matter if you cook just scramble eggs and toast and pasta, anything is better than veggie mush, meat smoothie, and mushroom surprise."

"You do have a point."

"Apprentice! No talking to the hungry patients!" Chef Opal told him, making the two boys frighten by her loud tone. She pours the veggie mush into Nobuyuki's bowl.

Nobuyuki gags a bit after it was poured. "See you at the table, Ryo-Ryo." And he walks over to the table where Hirabayashi and Chika are sitting.

After giving out the veggie mush to all of the patient, she pours the last bit into a bowl. "Alright, apprentice, you take break until lunchtime. I give you the last veggie mush to munch on." She gives the bowl to Ryoken.

"Gee. Thanks…" He takes the chef hat off his head, then walks out of the kitchen to go to the cafeteria, and goes to the table where Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, and Chika are sitting and sat down.

"I'm surprised that Chef Opal made you her apprentice, kid." Hirabayashi said. "That basically never happens."

Ryoken makes an annoyed face when Hirabayashi said it. "I try to tell her that I don't want to be her apprentice or cook, but that crazy lady wouldn't listen."

"Then maybe that crazy lady might sign up to this mental hospital and see how she feels when she has to eat her nasty food." Nobuyuki suggested.

The two boys laugh at that idea while Hirabayashi smirked. Chika didn't pay attention on what they said because she was playing on her gaming console.

Soon, instead of eating the veggie mush, Hirabayashi and Nobuyuki talked for a bit while Ryoken is in deep thought about his dream. Nobuyuki notices him being like this. "Hey, Ryo-Ryo, you okay?"

"Huh?" Ryoken snapped out of his deep thoughts and looked at Nobuyuki in confusion. He seems kind of concern about him. "Oh. Sorry, Nobuyuki. I was… just in my thoughts about this dream I have-"

"Dreams you say? That's cool, I'm in!" Tanaka said all of the sudden and is standing there, which kind of frightens Ryoken, Nobuyuki, and Hirabayashi so sudden when Tanaka appeared all of the sudden. Chika looked up from her gaming console when the three were startled, then sees Tanaka as well.

"When the hell did you get here?" Nobuyuki asked, so startled.

"Well, Mizushima, when a mommy and a daddy love each other so much-"

"No! I'm not talking about your parents mistakenly creating you through sex!" He told the idiot blonde man in anger. "I meant why are you here all of the sudden?"

Tanaka pouted for a moment when Nobuyuki interrupt him during his birds and the bees moment, but wipes it off a second. "I was just minding my own business when I overheard you guys a little bit and that's when Kogami said he had a dream last night, so here I am."

Nobuyuki glares at Tanaka for a moment. "So basically, you were stalking us this whole time, right?"

"Maaaybeeee…" Tanaka said, shifting his eyes left and right a bit. Nobuyuki is going to take that as a yes.

"Tanaka, why are you so interested in my dream all of the sudden?" Ryoken asked.

"Whenever people about dreams, either the dreams in sleep or who they want to be in the future, I be interested in what those dreams are. Plus my dream is to become the King of Casinos. Oh wait. That dream already came true."

"No one cares…" Nobuyuki said in annoyance.

"Anyway!" Tanaka pushes Hirabayashi and Chika to end sides of the table so he can sit between them and faces Ryoken. "What is your dream about, Kogami? Is it about you "giving it" to Funakoshi and her sexy busts, then suddenly her cancer spreads over you and you die from it, or was it your white haired friend you were "giving it" to instead?"

Ryoken makes an annoyed face when Tanaka asked him that question. "Okay, first, stop thinking about Kanashi's sensitive parts of her body, you pervert. Second, cancer is not contagious. And third, I am not gay."

"You're right. It was stupid of me to think you're gay, Kogami," Tanaka said, "so I'm gonna say you are bisexual."

Ryoken face palms himself in the face when he said that. "I'm not bisexual either."

"Asexual then?"

"Just ignore him, kid," Hirabayashi told the 18 year old, "it will be a waste of time for him to annoy us."

Ryoken nods in agreement of Hirabayashi's suggestion. "Well, in my dream, I was in my avatar, for this virtual world, and I sort of lost this duel against someone, or something, that is really bad news to me. Then this person, who keeps on bugging me on trying to be my friend and wanting to save me because I saved him from a very bad accident from 10 years ago, kneels on my side. I was laying on a digital flower field, kind of similar to a flower field that I used to go to when I was young, and-"

"Oh! Let me guess. A unicorn showed up and you ride on it and a magical rainbow is formed above your head and pixies and fairies are laughing and giggles all over the place! And you skipped through the flower field and sang a happy little song while you do that and all of other girly stuff you did." Tanaka laughs at the thought of that moment when he said it.

Nobody sitting at the table laughed along with Tanaka. They all just stare at him. Ryoken stares at him with a upset look when Tanaka said those things about his dream. "That's not what happened, Tanaka. Why would say something like that?"

"Oh come on, Kogami! Going to a flower field is for girls! You're a dude. Flowers and dudes don't mix together! Unless you're a girly dude. Are you a girly dude?"

That just made Ryoken more mad. "No. I'm not. I don't do any girly stuff and going to a flower field isn't all unicorns or fairies, or singing, and stuff. I go to the flower field and lay there and watch the sky for a bit. That's it."

"Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it."

Ryoken clutches his hand in anger as Tanaka keeps on mocking him.

"Tanaka, stop it," Nobuyuki told him, "don't try to piss off Ryo-Ryo. You two don't want to get in trouble again like the last time, right?"

Tanaka gulps when Nobuyuki said that. He doesn't care if he gets in trouble again. He just doesn't want to get strangled by Ryoken again.

Ryoken suddenly gets up, his bangs covering his eyes. "Forget it…" He takes the bowl of veggie mush, goes to the trash can, throws the veggie mush in the trash can, and then leaves the cafeteria.

Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, Tanaka, and Chika watch Ryoken leave. Chika gets up from the table and chases after Ryoken. Nobuyuki glares at Tanaka for a moment. "Nice going."

"What? What did I do?"

* * *

Ryoken enters his room, closes the door, and sat on his bed. He buries his face with his hands and sighs in frustration.

His ghost father appears in front of him. "You look very upset, son. Is it because of Tanaka?"

Ryoken lift his face from his hands and looks at his ghost father. "He is such an asshole. He can't just make fun of me just because I go to the flower field when I was young. Maybe it's for the best if I don't tell anyone about my dream with Playmaker and the Dark Ignis in it."

"Maybe your dream is telling you that maybe you want to accept Playmaker's friendship. I'm not sure about the Dark Ignis though, since it might destroy humanity very soon."

"No. That's not it. I refuse to become friends with Playmaker. Or with that stupid Ignis. Even if I continue to have that dream over and over again, I just going to pretend that I don't know about it."

"I see. By the way, when have you started to have that dream?" He asked his son.

"After the Ignis Warfare. When everybody was brought back, including myself. Right before you came and haunted my brain."

"I see, I see. But are you sure you don't want to accept Playmaker's friend-"

"Father… I don't want to talk about this anymore… Just leave me alone…"

There was silence in the room, but after a couple of minutes, his ghost father gave out a sigh. "Alright. I'll leave you in your thoughts, son." And soon, his ghost father disappeared back in Ryoken's mind.

Ryoken places his face back in his hands. He can't take this anymore. His father's ghost still haunting him. Tanaka constantly bullying him like he is still in high school. Chef Opal suddenly hiring him as her apprentice and serving the patients her gross food. Now that dream where he reached towards Playmaker and the Dark Ignis as he dies. When will this nightmare end?

Suddenly, he hears his door opening. He lifted his face up from his hands and sees Chika standing by the door. "If you're here to mock my dream like Tanaka did, then go away. I don't want to talk about it anymore…" He told her, bitterly

Chika doesn't say anything about his dream, she just stares at him for a moment. Then she walks to the bed, sits on it, and then suddenly hugs Ryoken around his waist, surprising him a bit.

Ryoken softens up a bit and looks down at Chika. "You were concern about me when Tanaka started mocking my dream, were you Chika?"

Chika nods her head as a yes. He smiles at the young child, then hugs her back. "Thank you. I need that." Tanaka may be a jerk towards him, but he is glad that he became friends with Nobuyuki, Hirabayashi, and Chika.

* * *

Soon lunchtime came and Ryoken is on apprentice duty as Chef Opal cooks meat smoothie with a squishier machine. Soon after lunch was over, including Ryoken's shift, he was sitting in the lounge, along with Nobuyuki, Tomo, who is cuddling Nobuyuki, much annoyance, and Chika while Hirabayashi is trying to fix the TV. Tanaka and Osamu are sitting at the table, playing poker, and Tanaka is on a winning streak. Kamiyama is standing by the door waiting for the community service student, Tanizaki, to come.

The door opens in a sudden rush and Tanizaki comes in. She was panting a lot, so she must of been running. "I'm sorry, Doctor Kamiyama! I have a lot of school work that I had to do in the library, then there was the Health Club, and being the school nurse's assistant! It was really hard! I won't be late again!" She bows down in apology as she said that.

"It's alright, Tanizaki-san, you're not in trouble. It happens to some of the nurses, sometimes," Kamiyama told the female student, "now that you're here, why don't you go ask one of the mental patients if they need any help."

"Y-yes sir!" Tanizaki walks over to where Ryoken, Nobuyuki, Tomo, Chika, and Hirabayashi are at. "Um… Hirabayashi-san, Mizushima-kun, Ohno-san, Etsuko-chan, Kogami-kun? Is there anything you need? I can go do it for you."

"No. I think we're okay, Tanizaki." Ryoken told her.

"Oh…" Tanizaki looks down at the floor, looking very upset.

"Hey, Tanizaki," Tanaka called out to her, which made her turn and looked at him, "if you want to do something useful, then you can start by fixing the TV."

"Tanaka! You can't just force the poor girl to fix the TV! We can handle it ourselves!" Nobuyuki told the blonde man in anger.

"I-it's okay. I'm sure I can fix the TV with some wires." Tanizaki said, kind of a little nervous.

"Actually, you just have to move the TV antennas to get the picture screen back on." Tanaka told her.

"Oh. Well, that's kind of easy to do." Tanizaki smiled in relief, then walks over to the TV.

"When is Kamiyama going to call an actual TV repair man?" Hirabayashi asked, then she walks over to the couch and sits down.

Tanizaki begins to move the antennas on the TV to get the picture up. Chika gets a little bored, so she gets off the couch and walks to her home to play her video games.

The same nurse with the dead-pin face comes inside and walks up to Ryoken. "Kogami, you have a visitor who is here to see you."

Ryoken raises his eyebrow in confusion. _'It could be Spectre who is here to visit me. Or Kanashi.'_ He thought to himself. He gets up from the couch and goes see his visitor.

Ryoken stops for a moment and is surprised on who his visitor is, and it's not Spectre or Kanashi. His visitor is actually Playmaker. Why is he here?

Playmaker turns and looks at Ryoken, and he gives him a smile. "Hi Revolver."

Ryoken didn't say anything at all. He just stares at Playmaker in confusion.

"Hiya, Revolver-chan!" Oh great… The Dark Ignis is here too. Well, it's inside Playmaker's duel disk, so of course it will be sticking by his side. When is he going to leave or at least like Ryoken kill that stupid Ignis?

"Why are you here?" He asked, he specifically told him to leave him alone, didn't he?

"Cause I want to be here just to visit you." He said, still smiling at him.

He wanted to be here just to visit him? That's not an answer, that's just desperately trying to comfort him.

He sees Playmaker taking off his backpack, and then pulls something out of it. In Playmaker's hand was a small bag. "What's in it?" He asked.

"Some makeup kit."

Ryoken scuffs in annoyance. First Chef Opal hiring him to be her apprentice, then Tanaka mocking him, and now this? "So basically, you came here to torment me by putting makeup on me? Didn't I suffer enough?"

"It's for your black eye," Playmaker told him, then he walks over to a empty table and sat down on it, "come over here."

Ryoken does what he said and sat down at the table. Playmaker pulls some of that rubbing stuff that woman put on their face, dips a tiny bit on his fingers, and rubs the stuff on Ryoken's black eye. Ryoken winces in pain because of his black eye. "Hold still." Playmaker said. And Ryoken did what he said as he hold still, trying not to wince in pain again.

"I'm sorry about Takeru punching you yesterday. He told this one time that if he were to ever meet you in real life, he would punch you pretty hard. I think he still hasn't gotten over the Lost Incident yet."

"Why are you apologizing for what Soulburner did? I deserve it anyway. For not making my move in our duel, for getting him and the others almost killed. He had every right to punch me. And, even if he hasn't gotten over the incident, I still have every right to get punched."

Playmaker didn't argue back when Ryoken deserved to be punched by Soulburner, he just keeps putting that stuff on his black eye.

"You know, Revolver-chan, I don't you ever gotten over the incident like Yusaku-chan did. When do you think you'll get over it?" The Dark Ignis asked, curious.

"When I finally kill you." He said, glaring at the Ignis.

The Dark Ignis gulps in fear when he said that. "I'm just gonna… go back inside the duel disk now…" And so it did.

"Okay. I'm done." Playmaker puts that stuff away and pulls out a pocket mirror from the small bag. Ryoken looks into it and sees his face doesn't have a black eye anymore. "Wow. It's like Soulburner punching me in the eye didn't even happened." Ryoken said as he touches his left eye where the black mark used to be. "Where did you learn how to do it?"

"I used to get bullied a lot when I was a kid at school, so my mom put some her make on my bruises so they wouldn't be shown. She always took care of me, before… she died."

"Your mom died?" Ryoken raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Yeah. She committed suicide by hanging herself after my step-father left the city and my little sister was sent away."

Ryoken's eyes widen of what Playmaker just said. "Wait. Little sister?" He couldn't mean…

"Well, technically, she's actually my half-sister. I was actually born from a different father, who left my mom when she was in high school and then she met my step-father and lived with him after my grandparents kicked her out of her home, and then my sister came along, and well, the rest you know. After the Lost Incident, my mom send me to therapy for a bit to help me handle my PTSD, and then a few years came and my sister was acting weird, so my step-father send her away somewhere, I don't remember where exactly, and then he left town, which made my mom very sad and depressed, and then she hanged herself and I was all alone. Well, not anymore. I build Roboppy when I was 13 years old so I can have some company."

He knew it! Chika's half-brother. And Playmaker's little sister. They are one and the same! And worst of it all, Playmaker doesn't even know that Chika is in the same mental hospital that Ryoken is in right now! Not only is the universe punishing him, but it is slightly punishing Playmaker as well.

Playmaker puts the small bag away, and then pulls out a deck of cards, but these aren't any ordinary cards, but Duel Monster cards. "Do you feel like playing for a bit?"

Ryoken stares at this deck for a moment. "You do realize that Link VRAINS is closed, right?"

"I do. But I thought we can duel just for fun. No duel disks, no speed duels, no master duels, no Link VRAINS. Just regular old dueling for fun."

Ryoken keeps on staring at the deck, then he looks at Playmaker. It's been a long time since he played Duel Monsters for fun. So, he gives him a nod as a yes, which doesn't surprise Playmaker at all, he just smiles.

* * *

Ryoken and Playmaker started their friendly duel on the floor since the table they were sitting on was round and the mat they are using was squared, but they didn't mind sitting on the floor. Playmaker uses a notepad to calculate their life points. So far, Ryoken only has 2400 while Playmaker has 3000. Ryoken was using his usual Topologic deck while Playmaker uses a bogus deck of his to keep his Link VRAINS identity in secret.

As Playmaker sets his monster down in attack mode, he notices a flower bracelet on Ryoken's wrist and recognizes it. "Bluebells?"

"Huh?" Ryoken looks up in confusion.

"The flower bracelet you're wearing on your wrist. It's a bluebell, isn't it?"

Ryoken looks down to his wrist with the Bluebell bracelet that Kanashi gave him yesterday after her chemo treatment is over. "Oh. Yeah. It is. An old of mine gave it to me yesterday. Bluebells are my favorite flower type."

Playmaker smiles for a bit. "I see. I can understand why Lightning created a flower field in Mirror Link VRAINS just for you when you and him dueled. Plus, you did go to the flower field when you were young."

Ryoken raises an eyebrow in confusion when Playmaker said that. He never told him about him going to the flower field. "How did you know about that?"

"You told me after Lightning's last attack. You told me and Ai that you used to go to the flower field when you were young and you looked up to the sky and said that you didn't have any trouble back then and you were always excited about the world."

The Dark Ignis comes out of Playmaker's duel disk cautiously. "And you called me by my name! So I figured you liked me now!"

Ryoken looks down at the floor and is very confused of what Playmaker and the Dark Ignis said. "So… that dream I keep having over and over again, that actually happened?"

Now it's Playmaker's turn to get confused. "Dream? What dream?"

"After the Ignis Warfare, I keep having these dreams of when you rushed over my side and kneeled beside me and then I told you about how I used to go to the flower field when I was young, and I reached towards you as I'm being turned into data and then I called the Dark Ignis by it's stupid name-"

"Hey! My name isn't stupid! It's very awesome!" The Dark Ignis interrupted for a moment, then Ryoken gives it the death glare, which frightens the Ignis a lot. "Uh… Back to the duel disk!" And so it did.

"Well, anyway, I keep on having this dream every night now. Even when my late father came back and haunts me, I still have those dreams, and I never understand why."

Playmaker looks at Ryoken with a concern look on his face for a moment. "Revolver, do you really… not remember what happened when you… died?" He asked, hesitated when he was about to say "died."

"No. I don't. All I remember is when the Light Ignis pulled out it's move to destroy us and I felt myself turn into data, and then later…"

**_ FLASHBACK _ **

_"_ _Revolver-sama? Wake up!" He heard a voice calling out to him, so Revolver slowly opened his eyes and sees Spectre standing there, giving out a concern look._

_"_ _Spectre…?" His voice was very tiring. Spectre gives out a sigh of relief. Revolver slowly gets up a bit. "What happened?"_

_"_ _We were all absorbed by the Light Ignis after we were all defeated, but Playmaker must of stop Bowman and brought us all back." Spectre explained to his leader and friend._

_Revolver's eyes widen slightly when Spectre said that. "Playmaker?" He turns his head and sees Playmaker down there, along with Soulburner and Blue Maiden, who were also brought back as well. Then Akira Zaizen and Ghost Girl run towards them._

_Revolver keeps on staring at Playmaker for a moment, but then gives out a grin of respect. "Well done, Playmaker."_

**_FLASHBACK ENDED_ **

"After everything was settled in Link VRAINS, me and Spectre logged out immediately before anyone saw us and, well, you know the rest." Playmaker nods in reply. "But, that moment at the flower field, where I told you and the Dark Ignis about my time there…" Ryoken looks down, looking very upset. "I thought it was just a dream…"

"It's alright." Playmaker said with a small smile, which Ryoken looks up and looks at him. "I'm glad I got to tell you about it. And talking about your past, it means I'm getting to know you better. Well, expect the part where you want to kill Ai."

Ryoken stays silent for a moment, but then chuckles a bit.

They resume with their duel and after a couple of minutes later, Playmaker calculated his life points. "Huh. What do you know, Revolver?" He picks up the notepad and shows it to Ryoken. "For the first time, you actually beat me."

Ryoken looks at the notepad. He's right. He did actually beat him. But it's just an ordinary duel. In Link VRAINS, Playmaker would beat Revolver in about 4 turns.

Maybe having Playmaker visiting him for a bit for Duel Monsters won't be so bad. It will be like 10 years ago when they played Duel Monsters when they were kids, before his father even started the Lost Incident.

"Yay! I got the picture on!" Ryoken heard Tanizaki shout in excitement, turns his head around to face the TV. It's now showing the news. He gets up from the floor and goes to the TV and watches it.

The news reports the 5th anniversary of the death of a young girl who died 5 years ago. She has short raven hair and sky blue eyes. The clothes she is wearing is a Den City Academy girls uniform. Instantly, Ryoken recognizes this girl.

Suddenly, Ryoken's whole body starts to shake badly and he is breathing rapidly. Then tears suddenly formed in the corner of his eyes. Everybody around him saw this and they all get concerned about it.

"Hey, Ryo-Ryo? You okay?"

"Kid? You alright?"

"Ryoken?"

"What's wrong, Kogami-kun?!"

All of the voices are surrounding him and he covers his ears to not hear them at all. And then, his vision goes black as he is lost in his own world. A world full of darkness…

* * *

Yusaku sees Revolver acting up for no reason at all and that concerns him a lot.

"Ryo-Ryo? You okay?" The man with dark green hair asked very concern.

"Kid? You alright?" The woman with long greenish blonde hair asked, who is also concern about Revolver.

"Ryoken?" A girl around Revolver's age with dark purple hair tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon called out his real name.

"What's wrong, Kogami-kun?!" Misaki asked as she panics why he is acting like this.

Yusaku then sees Revolver covering his ears, as if he doesn't want to hear these people.

Ai comes out of Yusaku's duel disk, looking a bit worried as well. "What's going on with Revolver? He's acting like… not himself."

"I don't know…" He can't just stand there and do nothing. He has to do something. So, Yusaku walks towards Ryoken. "Re-" He stops for a moment, forgetting that there are people in the mental hospital. He doesn't want to give away Revolver's avatar identity. "Kogami-san? Are you… okay?" He reaches out his hand and touches Revolver's shoulder.

Suddenly, Revolver pushes Yusaku down to the floor, making all the mental patients and Misaki startled he did that.

"Ryo-Ryo!"

"What the hell?!"

"Eeeek!"

"Whoa!"

Kamiyama came in the room. "What's going on here?" He asked.

"New kid is acting nuts!" The man with blonde slick hair shouted as he is pointing at Revolver.

"Kogami-san?" Kamiyama rushes over to Revolver and places his hands on his shoulders. "What's wrong? Why are you like this?"

Revolver didn't say anything. He keeps on breathing rapidly in panic.

Kamiyama pulls something out of his coat. It was a booster shot. He carefully puts it on Revolver's arm and pushes the backside down. Then suddenly, Revolver's breathing slows down and he suddenly becomes drowsy.

Kamiyama grabs hold of Revolver. "It's alright. He's fine. Just something to put him to sleep. I'll be taking him back to his room." He turns to look at Yusaku. "Fujiki-kun, I'm sorry you had to see that. I think it's best if you went home for today. Come back until Kogami-san is stable, okay?"

Yusaku nods his head and Kamiyama takes Revolver back to his room. Yusaku gets up from the floor and picks up all of the stuff from the floor.

"Are you okay, Yusaku?" Ai asked with a worried tone in his voice.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he told his partner, "sorry that I made you worry."

"Um… Fujiki-kun?" Yusaku turns around when his name was called and looks at Misaki, who is frighten of what just happened. "D-do you know why Kogami-kun was acting like that?"

Honestly, he has no idea why Revolver acted like that. It was the first time Yusaku had seen the Knight of Hanoi leader, Revolver, just panic like that. "No. I don't know why he was acting like that."

"Oh…" She looks down at the floor for a moment before looking back at Yusaku. "Do you know Kogami-kun very well? Or did you just met him yesterday when you and Homura-san helped me out?"

Of course Yusaku knows Revolver. He is the leader of the Knights of Hanoi. He is Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami's son. He is the person who saved him 10 years ago. But he can't just say it to Misaki. She'll just panic and faint. "Kogami-san is a customer at my friend's hotdog truck, Cafe Nagi. I often see him a lot."

"Oh. I see. Well, I hope Kogami-kun feels better tomorrow."

"Yeah. Me too." He hoped Revolver will feel better. He doesn't know why that happened. He picks up his backpack and puts it on him. "I'll see you at school, Tanizaki."

"Okay. See you tomorrow, Fujiki-kun."

Soon, Yusaku leaves the hospital.

* * *

"Revolver pushed you?" Kusanagi was shocked when Yusaku said that to him and Takeru. Yusaku had just arrive to the Cafe Nagi and tells his friends of what happened at the mental hospital.

"Yeah. It was weird that he is acting like that. I never seen this side of him before." Yusaku looks down at the table, very sad by it. He is very worried about Revolver.

"Were you hurt?"

"No. I'm fine, Kusanagi-san. Don't worry."

Takeru gives Yusaku a confusing look. "I still don't understand why you went to visit Revolver in the first place."

"Well, I feel bad for him. Having a mental illness like that is serious, so I thought visiting him and playing Duel Monsters would cheer him up. Wouldn't you do the same as well, Takeru?"

Takeru makes an angry face. "No way! He waited until 6 months to call the cops to get us out of that facility, he didn't do anything in our duel, which resulted in a no result, and he gets us all killed in Mirror Link VRAINS! Not to mention, he sees the ghost of the same guy who tortured us 10 years ago!"

"Uh… I think that's a bit too harsh on Revolver-chan, Takeru." Ai told the teen.

"I don't care!"

"Takeru, calm down." Yusaku told his friend. Takeru looks at Yusaku, then takes a deep breath as he calmed down for a bit. "But still, I don't know why Revolver was acting like that…"

"Are you talking about Ryoken-sama's breakdown?" They heard a familiar voice and they turned their heads around and sees a man with white hair and blue eyes and he is wearing a fancy attire walking up towards them.

"You're… Spectre."

Spectre gives out a smile and bows to the boys. "It is an honor to meet you in the real world, Playmaker. Oh and of course, Soulburner too."

"Wait. You didn't plan on meeting us in real life?" Ai asked in confusion.

"Ryoken-sama told us not to come near you in the real world and we has what we told him, but with him in the mental hospital for his illness, I am temporary in charge until he is cured."

"That… kind of makes sense."

"Why are you here, Spectre?" Yusaku asked the man.

"I saw the news and they talked about the 5th anniversary of Kaede Tachibana." Spectre explained.

Takeru raises his eyebrow. "Kaede Tachibana?"

"I seen pictures of her in the halls as a memory of her," Yusaku said, "I never met her, but she went to our school 5 years ago before her death."

"Very clever, Playmaker. I'm impressed that you saw those pictures at your school." Spectre said, with a grin.

"Okay, but what does this have to do with Revolver?" Takeru is more confused than ever.

"You see, Kaede Tachibana was known as Razor when Link VRAINS was first introduced, and she was apart of this group that tracks down sneaky hackers and stops them. Ryoken-sama was apart of that group too, before the Knights of Hanoi were created."

Yusaku is surprised to hear that. "He was?"

"Yes. Since you are all are interested, let me tell you all how Ryoken-sama is how he is now."

And so, the boys and the Ignis all listen in to what Spectre is about tell about Revolver's past 5 years ago and Kaede Tachibana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that will conclude Chapter 11. And soon I will start Chapter 12 of Father Thy Blood, but this time, it will take place 5 years ago, before Ryoken formed the Knights of Hanoi, before he is called Revolver, he was once called Mystery, and how he grew to hate AIs. So, I will see you soon in Chapter 12.
> 
> BTW, REVOLVER'S VISOR BROKE! Just seeing it break at the end of episode 116 and him smiling gracefully as he loses the duel to Soulburner just warms my heart! That means there is still hope for my baby Revolver to have a bright future and for him to accept Yusaku's friendship! I just wish VRAINS would last longer for Spring 2020 instead of it being early!

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know, the prologue is short to begin with, but trust, when I write more chapters, it will be long. I hope. I pretty much don't come up with story ideas in my head, it's kind of hard. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the prologue and see what you think about it. Hope to see you all soon!


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